Social Democrats call for presidential election to be postponed

The head of the Social Democrats, Jiri Paroubek, and former Health Minister, David Rath, would like to postpone presidential elections until the 7th of March 2008 at the earliest, reported Lidove Noviny on Tuesday. The current president Vaclav Klaus' mandate expires on the 7th of February, and if elections were put-back, then he would be forced to move out of Prague Castle, where he currently holds office, and lose the right to his current PR team. Mr. Rath told Lidove Noviny that this would only be fair, allowing any candidate running against Mr Klaus in the 2008 elections the same privileges as the current president. Civic Democrat MPs have called this an attempt to 'humiliate' the president, and are describing the suggestion as 'petty'. The suggestions have not been heeded by the head of the lower house, who has said that he will not be calling elections any later than the 8th of February.