Postal voting one step away from approval after years of debate and rejection
On Friday afternoon the Czech lower house finally approved a bill that has been years in the making – the introduction of postal voting for citizens living abroad. Czech expatriates have been waiting decades for this change to happen.
While almost all EU countries allow postal voting in some form – or an alternative, such as online voting in France – Czechia is one of only three, along with Croatia and Malta, that currently requires its citizens to vote in person, whether at home or abroad.
For Czechs living in other countries, this often means trekking large distances to their nearest embassy to cast their ballot, as the head of one of the governing coalition parties, TOP 09’s Markéta Pekarová Adamová, pointed out.
“This law means that your right to vote won’t be impeded by the huge obstacle of having to go to an embassy or return home to the Czech Republic in order to exercise that right. Voting is one of our basic rights as citizens – and that includes those who live abroad permanently or long-term.”
But not everybody is so enthusiastic. The opposition has vehemently fought against the proposal from the start, filibustering and attempting to delay its passage through parliament for as long as possible.
Radim Fiala from the Freedom and Direct Democracy Party says postal voting could pose a threat to democracy and the secrecy of ballots will no longer be guaranteed once it is introduced.
“In my opinion, it’s wrong. It’s a danger to democracy, because it erodes people’s trust in democratic elections. The way I see it, the elections won’t be direct, fair or anonymous anymore.”
Due to filibustering by the opposition, the bill’s first reading in January took six days or a total of 63.5 hours, and the second reading in May a further two days or almost 20 hours. This third round took the fewest number of hours – 12.5 – but a further three parliamentary sessions. In total, the Czech parliament spent 96 hours discussing this proposal before finally getting to the conclusive vote on Friday.
And this isn’t even the first time Czech MPs have debated such a move. Similar proposals have been discussed for decades and have even made it to parliament several times over the years – but have always been defeated.
This is therefore a historic moment not only for this government, but also for expatriate Czechs, who have been campaigning for postal voting for years, notably in a 2021 campaign where they tracked how many kilometres they had run or walked to highlight the distances they have to cover in order to exercise their right to vote.
The coalition government were keen to get the bill approved in time for the 2025 general elections, which the opposition argues was merely an attempt for them to scrape together more votes, as their popularity at home has continuously waned over the time they have been in office.
The bill in its present form does not extend to people on holiday or travelling at election time, although the coalition has said it could be extended to vacationers in the future. However, at present, postal voting will only be available to Czechs with permanent residence abroad.
The bill will now go to the Senate, which is expected to approve it without delay, as it has repeatedly supported similar proposals in the past.
