Second round of presidential elections begins at Prague castle

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are currently holding a joint session at Prague castle, in a second attempt to elect a successor to President Vaclav Havel. The opposition Civic Democrats have chosen to once again put forward Vaclav Klaus, who won most votes during the first, inconclusive elections on January 15th. Following the failure of their candidate Jaroslav Bures in the first election, members of the senior coalition Social Democrats have nominated former leader Milos Zeman, while the two junior coalition parties - the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Union - have nominated Senator Jaroslava Moserova. Dita Asiedu spoke earlier to Rob Cameron, who is at Prague Castle:

Second round of presidential elections begins at Prague castle

Vaclav Klaus, photo: CTK

Rob, with the exception of Vaclav Klaus, there were two new presidential candidates who seemed to be much stronger personalities than those we saw on Jan. 15th. So, how did that change the atmosphere at the Spanish Hall today?

"Well, it was fairly similar to the last time. It was a kind of a mixture because Vaclav Klaus' speech at the beginning was very light-hearted. He made jokes and there was some applause and laughter ringing out through the hall. The other two speakers, Jaroslava Moserova and Milos Zeman, had a much more sombre tone to their speech. Mrs Moserova in particular stressed the importance of the public being sick of being lied to by politicians. She said that she had personally built her whole life around the idea of living in truth and said that it was the way she would continue if she were elected as president."

What about Mr Zeman?

Milos Zeman, photo: CTK

"Well, Mr Zeman chose the opportunity to lay out exactly how he thought the Czech president should behave and what powers should be made open to him. He especially stressed the controversial issue of amnesties. President Havel has over the last decade come in for criticism for some controversial amnesties of people who have either been convicted or people who are still being investigated by the police. Mr Zeman said that he himself did not believe that the institute of amnesties should be a kind of leftover from a monarchy. He said that he would actually seek to consult all the cases of amnesty with the justice ministry and then act accordingly, which is very different from the way Mr Havel has acted over the last few years."

What about the reactions of the deputies and the senators? The joint session was broadcast live on Czech TV and one could see that some of them were quite bored and weren't able to sit in their seats for too long...

"That's absolutely true. I think they stayed fairly attentive for the first three speeches by the presidential candidates. Then, after that, we had speeches by various politicians, including a brief one by Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla and of course the leader of the Communist Party Miroslav Grebenicek. As soon as Mr Grebenicek began speaking, about a good third of the hall got up and went for a coffee and a cigarette. I would stress that the speeches are probably the least significant part of today. The really important stuff, of course, goes on behind the closed doors of the senators and the deputies."