A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 61.27% (first round) 59.08% (second round) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
.svg) .svg) | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
.JPG)
 |
|---|
 |
Presidential elections were held in the Czech Republic in January 2013, the country's first direct election for the presidency.[1][2] No candidate received a majority of the votes in the first round on 11–12 January, so a second round runoff election was held on 25–26 January. Nine individuals secured enough signatures or support of parliamentarians to become official candidates for the office. Miloš Zeman of the Party of Civic Rights (SPOZ) and Karel Schwarzenberg of TOP 09 qualified for the second round,[3] which was won by Zeman with 54.8% of the vote, compared to Schwarzenberg's 45.2%.[4][5] Zeman assumed office in March 2013 after being sworn in.
Background
After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the adoption of a new constitution in 1992, the president was indirectly elected by a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Czech Republic. The possibility of a directly elected president was controversial because of concerns that it could weaken a government under the prime minister.[6][7] The 2008 presidential election, which narrowly reelected Václav Klaus after several attempts, however was criticized for the appearance of political deal-making and allegations of corruption.[7][8][9] Prime Minister Petr Nečas subsequently put the issue of a directly elected president in his three-party coalition agreement when he formed his government in 2010, in part because of demands by the TOP 09 party, and the Public Affairs and Mayors and Independents parties.[7] Several outspoken opponents of the change however came from the Prime Minister's own Civic Democratic Party.[10]
In September 2011, an amendment was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies for a second official reading, during which the Communist Party (KSČM) tried to reject the bill by sending it back into the review process, but the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), also part of the opposition, did not support the Communists' motion,[10] and allowed the bill to go ahead with certain changes, including limits on presidential power and penal immunity.[11] On 14 December 2011, the Chamber of Deputies passed the constitutional amendment for direct elections by a vote of 159 out of 192.[11] This was then sent to the Senate, which passed the amendment on 8 February 2012 after five hours of debate[6] by a majority of 49 of 75.[12] The Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, Pavel Rychetský, criticized the bill's method in which a constitutional amendment was in effect added, though without changing the original text of the constitution, and while leaving the election open to legal and constitutional challenges.[13]
In June 2012 an implementation bill for holding the election passed in the Chamber of Deputies, and in July in the Senate.[1] Though constitutional amendments do not require presidential approval, and cannot be vetoed,[12] President Václav Klaus did need to sign or veto the implementation bill; a refusal could have halted the constitutional changes.[1] Klaus opposed the measure, though saying it was a "fatal mistake"[6] as the country was not ready for such a move.[14] He however signed the law on 1 August 2012.[1] The law was scheduled to take effect on 1 October 2012,[needs update][12] after which Senate President Milan Štěch was due to set a date for the election, following discussions with the Ministry of the Interior.[needs update][15]
The two-day first round was on 11–12 January 2013. However, because no one secured an absolute majority, a run-off round was held on 25–26 January 2013.[15] Candidates were allowed to spend up to Kč40 million in the first round and Kč10 million in the second round. Each candidate had an election committee that manages campaign funding, which should be run through a special account. All anonymous campaigns contributions were banned.[1]
Candidates
In order to be a candidate, an individual needs to gather 50,000 signatures from citizens or the support of twenty deputies or ten senators. The candidates were bound to file their applications with the signatures sixty-six days before the election;[15] following which the Interior Ministry verified a sampling of the signatures.[1]
The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) held primary elections in July 2012 to choose their candidate, selecting former President of the Senate Přemysl Sobotka over MEP Evžen Tošenovský.[16] SPOZ, TOP 09, and Suverenita have their party leaders running for the post. Jan Švejnar, who ran for the presidency in 2008 against Václav Klaus, declined to run in order to support Jan Fischer's candidacy.[9]
Confirmed candidates
| Candidate name and age,[a] political party |
Office(s) held | Details | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zuzana Roithová (60) Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party |
|
Minister of Health (1998) Other offices
|
Running with number 1 and with support of 75,066 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Jan Fischer (62) Independent |
|
Prime Minister (2009–2010) Other offices
|
Running with number 2 and with support of 77,387 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Jana Bobošíková (48) Czech Sovereignty |
|
Member of the European Parliament (2004–2009) |
Running with number 3 and with support of 50,810 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Táňa Fischerová (65) Key Movement with Green Party support |
|
Leader of Key Movement (2008–2018) Other offices
|
Running with number 4 and with support of 64 961 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Přemysl Sobotka(68) Civic Democratic Party |
|
President of the Senate (2004–2010) Other offices
|
Running with number 5 and with support of 51 deputies.[17][18] | |
| Miloš Zeman (68) Party of Civic Rights |
|
Prime Minister (1998–2002) Other offices
|
Running with number 6 and with support of 82,856 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Vladimír Franz (53) Independent |
|
None | Running with number 7 and with support of 75,709 signatures from public.[17][18] | |
| Jiří Dienstbier Jr. (43) Czech Social Democratic Party |
|
Senator (2011–2020) Other offices
|
Running with number 8 and with support of 27 senators.[17][18] | |
| Karel Schwarzenberg(75) TOP 09 |
|
Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007–2009; 2010–2013) Other offices
|
Running with number 9 and with support of 38 deputies.[17][18] | |
Vladimír Franz appears insignificant in agency surveys but in November he was the obvious favorite of opinion polls of several different popular news servers and media (Aktuálně.cz,[19] Reflex,[20] iDnes.cz[21]) as well as of so-called "students' elections"[22] in all regions and all types of secondary schools.[23] The current president Klaus expressed fear that his successor would be Franz or Okamura.[24]
Disqualified candidates
The following list includes the candidates who were disqualified after the Ministry of Interior reviewed their petitions assessing that they failed to meet the quorum of minimum of 50,000 popular signatures or twenty MPs in the Chamber of Deputies, or ten MPs in the Senate.
Candidates Jana Bobošíková, Vladimír Dlouhý, and Tomio Okamura collected more than 50,000 signatures; however, after checking two samples of each petition and reducing the number of signatures according to the error rate, the number fell below the requirement; accordingly, they were not registered as candidates. Along with the action, the ministry stated that many of Bobošíková's alleged signatories were long dead; while in case of Okamura, the ministry found a large number of fictitious signatories. Both candidates appealed the ministry's decision before the Supreme Administrative Court, believing that the ministry had used an incorrect method of recount.[18]
On 13 December 2012, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled on the complaints. It ordered that Bobošíková must be registered as a candidate, and rejected the complaints of Dlouhý and Okamura, as even after correcting the error in computation their number of valid signatures still fails to meet the quorum.[25] Okamura unsuccessfully challenged the verdict at the Constitutional Court.[26]
