Czech elections to Regional Assemblies and one-third of the Senate will be held despite the flood, Romani women and men are candidates
This Friday and Saturday, the elections to Regional Assemblies and the Senate will be held in the Czech Republic. The Government is convinced it is able to arrange for ballots to be cast even in locales affected by the floods, as Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (Civic Democratic Party - ODS) said in a press conference after the emergency cabinet session on Monday. The mayor of Opava, which has been affected by the high waters, has asked for the elections there to be postponed. A working group has been set up at the Interior Ministry to aid with the regular holding of the elections under these circumstances. Karel Havlíček, the vice-chair of the Association of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) movement, now in opposition, said on public broadcaster Czech Television that he respects the cabinet's decision.
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents – STAN) said previously that if the elections were to be cancelled, their legitimacy could be attacked. On Tuesday evening he added that firefighters, police, and statisticians will collaborate on holding the elections. The crisis committee was planning to meet about organizing the elections in regions affected by the flood.
Czech President Petr Pavel attended the emergency cabinet session and noted that the deadline set by law to adjust the date of the elections expired on Monday. In his view, the only argument for postponing the elections would be if it were not possible to arrange for regular voting everywhere. He made that statement to journalists when arriving at the Office of the Government for the meeting.
According to the Prime Minister, the Government has considered all of the arguments and consulted with election experts and the governors of the regional authorities. “We have been considering all arguments and variants,” he said. In his view, doubts would be cast on the election outcomes even if they were just postponed, because in 90 % of precincts the voting can take place without any problems. Rakušan said there was no demand from the regions for a state of emergency to be declared. Announcing such a state would be the unavoidable step to take in order to postpone the vote.
ANO will respect the Government’s decision, according to First Vice-Chair Havlíček. “What is essential is that once the Government has made this decision, it has to manage to guarantee that people will be able to physically go to the polls,” he said on Czech Television. Czech MP Radek Koten (“Freedom and Direct Democracy” – SPD), a member of the Committee on Security in the lower house, agrees with the cabinet’s decision as well. “I assume it will be possible to arrange for regular elections everywhere,” he told public broadcaster Czech Television.
According to the forecasts spoken of recently by Czech Environment Minister Petr Hladík (Christian Democrats – KDU-ČSL), in locations where it will not be possible to hold the vote in the standard polling places, firefighters should organize polling places and volunteers should aid them.
Mayor of Opava Tomáš Navrátil (ANO) said it will be quite demanding to hold the elections there now. According to him, it will not be possible to open some of the polling places in the city, and it likely will not be possible to arrange for the delivery of ballots to everybody, either. Members of the electoral commissions could also experience problems, in his view. Many live in the flooded areas and will be worried about cleaning up or repairing their homes, he believes. In Opava, both elections to the Regional Assemblies and to the Senate will be held. The city will mainly have personnel problems should the Senate elections go to a second round.
According to news server Romea.cz, at least 12 Romani women and men are running in the elections to the Regional Assemblies this year. There could be even more Romani candidates running, though. Their placement on the candidate lists does not give them much of a chance of being elected. For example, Martin Mata, director of the Innovation Center of the Ústecký Region, is running in 20th place on the candidate list of the “A Better North” (Lepší sever) movement. Nikola Stojková of ODS is running in the Moravian-Silesian Region for the SPOLU (“TOGETHER”) ticket in 39th place. Candidate Ladislav Mártha is representing the Social Democrats in the Liberec Region. Cyril Koky (age 36) of the Czech Pirates’ Party is running in the Moravian-Silesian Region as well, in 34th place on their ticket.
All of the elections in the Czech Republic this year, including the elections to the European Parliament in June, will cost CZK 1.6 billion [EUR 64 million] total. Compared to last year that is an increase of CZK 910 million [EUR 36 million]. Prior to the floods, the estimated cost of the police work to provide security for the elections to one-third of the Senate seats and the Regional Assemblies was predicted to cost roughly CZK 34.3 million [EUR 1.4 million]. In May, the Interior Ministry calculated the cost of holding the June elections at roughly CZK 23.2 million [EUR 925,000].
