In the days of the Velvet Revolution in the autumn of 1989, crowds in the streets chanted "Havel na Hrad!" or "Havel to the castle", expressing their wish that the dissident playwright become President of Czechoslovakia. The opinion of the public - at least of those who let themselves be heard - was strongly in favour of one candidate. Now thirteen years on, Czechs don't seem to be willing to take to the streets again to express support their favourite candidate and the public is quite divided in their opinion on who should succeed Vaclav Havel at Prague Castle - the traditional seat of heads of state.
In ten days, both houses of the Czech Parliament will sit together in order to elect a new president. None of the official candidates, however, is expected to get enough votes to make it in the first attempt. In case another attempt to elect a new head of state fails, some political parties will probably try and push through a change in the constitution - that is direct presidential election. According to opinion polls carried out by the TNS Factum polling agency, 87 percent of Czechs are in favour of a direct vote, while 10 percent wish to maintain the current method of election. If Czechs could vote for their president now, the poll suggests the winner would be Vaclav Klaus, the founder, long-time leader and currently the honorary chairman of the opposition Civic Democratic Party. The equally loved and hated politician who during his 13-year career has held the posts of finance minister, prime minister and chairman of the lower house would get over 34 percent of votes if the public were to go to the polls now. The Chairman of the Senate Petr Pithart would get 17 percent, followed by ombudsman Otakar Motejl with 13 percent, despite the fact that Mr Motejl is not running for the post. Over 10 percent of Czechs would vote for the Social Democrats' candidate Jaroslav Bures who was Justice Minister in the last government. The Communist Party's nominee, communist-era military prosecutor Miroslav Krizenecky was not even mentioned in the polls, whereas over 8 percent of the public support the former Prime Minister and chairman of the Social Democrats, Milos Zeman, who has retired to his country house and says he would run for the post of Czech President only if the first parliamentary vote failed to produce a new head of state. Another possibility is that political parties will decide to change the election system immediately if the first attempt fails. That means the Czech Republic would have no president for several months before the parliament passes the necessary legislation and a popular vote takes place.
