Date of first round of presidential elections announced

The date of the first round of presidential elections will be Friday 13 and Saturday 14 January of next year, Senate chair Miloš Vystrčil announced on Monday. A possible second round of elections may be held on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 January. Current president Miloš Zeman’s term will end on March 8 and he is not allowed to run again.

Mr. Vystrčil wants the election announcement to be published in the Collection of Laws no later than July 1. From then on, the campaign will be official. He had previously considered announcing the election in August, but in order to be fair to all candidates, he decided to call the elections now so everyone would have the same starting point, as some candidates have already announced their candidacy or started campaigning.