Third attempt to elect new president to take place on Friday

Friday will see another attempt to elect a new Czech president. Both houses of the Czech parliament will meet at Prague Castle on Friday morning for the third time in six weeks to try and choose a new head of state in a secret ballot. The two candidates for the post are: the honorary chairman of the Civic Democratic Party and former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus, who received the most votes in the previous two elections, and the ruling coalition's nominee, university professor and former Education Minister Jan Sokol. The Czech Republic has been without a president since February 2, when Vaclav Havel's second and final term of office ended. If Friday's vote fails again to produce a new head of state, the legislators are likely to start debate on the introduction of direct presidential election.