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Two rounds of voting fail in the Czech presidential election failed to produce a new head of state on Friday evening. Neither the incumbent, Václav Klaus, nor his challenger Czech-American economist Jan Švejnar were able to secure majorities in both houses of Parliament in Friday’s joint-session. In the first round, Mr Klaus received a majority in the Senate with 47 senators voting for him, while his challenger won a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. A second round followed shortly afterwards, also proving inconclusive. Both candidates, however, have made it to the third a final round of the election, now set for Saturday.

Lawmakers from both houses of Parliament will reconvene their joint-session at Prague Castle at 10 am to try and elect the new president. Unlike the first two rounds in which a majority in both houses is needed to win, the third pools votes from both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

For most of Friday it appeared it wouldn’t come down to a vote at all: the 281 MPs and senators present failed for hours to agree on an actual voting method, as voting can be either public or secret. The deadlock was finally broken shortly after 8 pm on Friday evening. Civic Democrat legislators first failed to pass a motion proposing the presidential ballot be secret, guaranteeing the public vote.

To recap: lawmakers in the election are choosing between 66-year-old Václav Klaus, who has almost twenty years experience in Czech politics and is seeking a second five-year term. His challenger Jan Švejnar is a US-based economist and relative newcomer to the Czech political scene, although he was an advisor to former president Václav Havel in the 1990s. Reasons for the deadlock on the voting method on Friday may vary, but it was widely considered that a secret ballot would favour incumbent Václav Klaus, while an open ballot might provide his opponent Jan Švejnar with an advantage.

A Czech court has acquitted former Czech police officer Tomáš Čermák on the charge of having attacked Kateřina Jacques, a Green Party official who is now a lower house deputy. Mr Čermák was accused of having beaten up Ms Jacques up when she protested against neo-Nazis demonstrating in Prague in May 2006. After the incident, which was partly caught on camera, Mr Čermák was sacked from the police and accused of abuse of power and inflicting bodily harm. The defence said that during the demonstration the defendant had repeatedly asked Jacques not to enter a zone where she would come into direct contact with attendees of the neo-Nazi rally. The defense had also argued that Jacques aimed to gain publicity ahead of a general election in June 2006.

The police have revealed that they apprehended a suspect - a former member of the criminal police – wanted for involvement in the theft of more than 500,000 crowns (the equivalent of around 28 thousand US dollars) in 2007. The suspect and two others have been taken into custody. The three allegedly robbed a Ukrainian national of the money.