Interior Ministry admits error in not accepting Janeček’s presidential candidacy signature

Following an appeal made by Czech businessman Karel Janeček against the decision by the Ministry of Interior that he had not gathered a sufficient number of signatures to qualify him to run in the presidential elections, the Ministry has admitted that its staff proceeded too “formally” when it did not admit Mr Janeček’s own signature on the list that he presented, the Czech News Agency reported on Monday. However, the Ministry remains decided that the businessman did not collect a sufficient number of valid signatures.

Mr Janeček sought to qualify for the presidential election by collecting at least 50,000 citizen signatures supporting his candidacy. However, the Ministry of Interior rejected 26,000 of them during its review process, leaving only 48,091 valid signatures.