Czech lower house to elect new Deputy Public Defender of Rights

At the beginning of April the six-year term of Deputy Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček will end. The lower house will then elect his successor.

Candidates will be nominated by the President of the Republic and the Senate. The daily Právo has reported that Czech President Zeman will nominate Křeček again.

“I do not think it appropriate for the Deputy Public Defender of Rights to be elected now, several months before the election of the new Public Defender of Rights, without the new Public Defender of Rights being able to influence that choice,” Křeček said, adding that if re-elected he is prepared to resign after the election of the new Public Defender of Rights in order to make it possible for the newly-elected Public Defender of Rights to influence the choice of Deputy. The President and the Senate may propose up to two candidates for the post to the lower house.

On 12 January Czech Television reported that another candidate for Deputy Public Defender of Rights could be the former head of the Government Legislative Council, Pavel Zářecký. Three women will also be considered for the post.

The female candidates are the attorney Klára Samková; the Dean of the Law Faculty at Masaryk University in Brno, Markéta Selucká; and Eliška Wagnerová, a former Constitutional Court justice, former presiding justice of the Supreme Court, and former Senator for the Green Party. Some of them are likely to be among the two candidates proposed by the Senate for the closed lower house vote.