In two weeks, both houses of the Czech parliament will meet again to try and elect a new Czech president. Third time lucky, Czechs hope, as they are getting tired of all the haggling that accompanied the two previous unsuccessful attempts. If the third parliamentary session fails to produce a head of state, the legislators will start debate on a change in the constitution. Political parties, including those which used to dismiss referendums as "the rule of the street", are now saying a direct presidential vote is the answer.
Presidential elections in Serbia, photo: CTK
Last weekend saw a presidential election in another country, Montenegro, now one part of the two-state union which replaced the remains of the former Yugoslavia almost two weeks ago. The Montenegrins went to the polls to choose their president in a direct vote but failed to elect a president for the second time in three months because both times, less than fifty percent of the voters turned out. The catch is that their law stipulates a fifty-percent turnout threshold, otherwise the poll is invalid. It is worth mentioning that the situation in Montenegro is similar to the one in Serbia, the other half of the newly established union. Three times at the end of last year, presidential elections in Serbia failed to muster those fifty percent of eligible voters required for a valid ballot. Neither Serbia, nor Montenegro have presidents now as the majority of their populations are largely indifferent. In Serbia, the next attempt to elect a president has been postponed until the adoption of a new Serbian constitution in autumn. In Montenegro the ruling party wants to change the election rules. That means scrapping the voter turnout rule or... introducing indirect presidential elections - which is exactly what the Czech parliament wants to abandon in an effort to break the presidential deadlock. The two contradictory situations almost suggest that whenever a sticky situation arises, the first instinct is to blame the system.
All the three "beheaded" countries are now going about their daily business as usual. Ordinary people hardly notice there is something missing, while politicians are busy blaming the situation on bad laws. I only wonder what or whom they will blame after the laws are changed.
