Milos Zeman's popularity complicates presidential election for Social Democrats
With President Vaclav Havel's final term in office now drawing quickly to a close, political parties in the Czech Republic have begun preparing themselves for the first round of new presidential elections in January, and one thing has already become very clear: choosing the country's next leader will not be an easy task.
Even under such circumstances many are giving the country's governing coalition leaders the Social Democrats the greatest chance of finding support for their candidate; with potential support on both sides of the political spectrum they seem most well-poised to push their candidate through. But there is a key dilemma: the Social Democrats can not agree which candidate to field.
Party leaders recently held a non-binding public referendum to try and rally support, with many pundits say, for the widely popular ombudsman Otakar Motejl, but the referendum completely backfired with Mr Motejl coming in a surprising third, the country's Justice Minister Jaroslav Bures coming in second, and - the controversial former prime minister Milos Zeman coming in first, which is the last thing most of the current party leadership under Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla wants. In this way the referendum on who to nominate has complicated the issue. The decision of who to nominate could even break the party apart into opposing factions. There is one loophole: Milos Zeman, who won the referendum, has pledged he will only take part in the second round of the election if none of the other candidates succeed, as he really enjoys retirement at his country cottage.
