Parties agree to November election

The Social Democrats (ČSSD) and the Civic Democrats (ODS) have agreed to a November election date as the Constitutional Court prepares to rule on the legitimacy of lawmaker Miloš Melčák's contention that the general election, originally scheduled for Oct. 9-10, breached the Constitution.

If the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament's lower house, approves the November election in connection with a permanent constitutional amendment, requiring a three-fifths majority, it will be a permanent law, almost certainly immune to challenge.

The breakthrough allowing a November election follows a change in the Social Democratic Party's position after its leader, Jiří Paroubek, dropped his demand that the general election be held Oct. 9-10.

"What we did was for the sake of the state," Paroubek said. "It is necessary that the election takes place as soon as possible."

What may
happen next

Scenario 1 Court dismisses independent MP Miloš Melčák's complaint resulting in original Oct. 9-10 election
Scenario 2 Court rules Melčák's objection has some legitimacy and will deliver a verdict at a future date making an October election impossible Parliament will then pass emergency legislation dissolving itself and naming an election date in early November. This legislation would be backed by the constitution
Scenario 3 If three succesive cabinets lose no confidence votes in Parliament, by the constitution an election must be called

days of decision

Sept. 10 The constitutional court will decide if MP's can shorten their term, the issue challenged by Melčák. Parliament has the third reading of the constitutional law in the lower house and moves it to the Senate providing it has a two-thirds majority as seems likely
Sept. 11 If the constitutional court decides to back Melčák, the Senate will confirm the new constitutional law. If the court does not, then election will be held Oct. 9-10 as planned.
Sept. 15 President signs new law
Sept. 16 The Lower house votes to dissolve itself. New date for general election likely to be Nov. 6-7

Melčák

"It's a shame the elections are held up. Melčák just wanted to remain a deputy for his whole four-year mandate. I'm not mad at Melčák. I'm mad at the Constitutional Court."
Vladimír Janda, ODS voter

"These are needless complications. Government is corrupt anyway. If I could vote, I would go for TOP 09."
Eliška Kaučková, student, not yet eligible to vote

"The situation is not OK. Politics is crap, as my father used to say."
Ivan Berka, music shop owner

"The ČSSD and the ODS are the same thing. Paroubek is hungry for power, and Topolánek is making a pile for himself. The crisis is Paroubek's fault. He is liable for the government's collapse. I would vote for Bobošíková, leader of the Sovereignty Party - she represents honesty to me."
Jindřich Pazdera, taxi driver

"I only have sympathy for the ODS. The ČSSD  need to get back their voters. They used to have the best program - but now they try to introduce a broader spectrum, reducing their quality. TOP 09 has no chance to succeed in my opinion. TOP 09 does not have an honest campaign. They put up billboards saying 'with the support of the mayors' as if all the mayors in the Czech Republic support them."
Brian Polovinčák, student

"If Paroubek left, I would be more in favor of the ČSSD - but never with him as a leader. We have a good-for-nothing situation here. Melčák will not influence the election results anyway. I believe he just wants to stay in for as long as possible. The election will take place very soon, I believe. No one can afford to prolong it any more. All the parties have one common interest -  the election."
Lukáš Nevečeřal, ODS supporter

The main parties' leaders are now in agreement that an election could be held in November, provided Parliament passes a permanent Constitutional amendment with a three-fifths majority allowing for the dissolution of Parliament, now largely considered a formality.

Civic Democratic Party leader Mirek Topolánek said, "The degree of acceptance is much higher among the political parties after some withdrew their categorical requests."

The main parties had agreed to a temporary one-off change to the Constitution to cut the election term short after a no-confidence vote in Parliament brought down a center-right Cabinet in March. A caretaker government has been running the country since May.

In August, independent MP Melčák complained to the Constitutional Court that the caretaker government had no right to dissolve Parliament and call an October general election. He based his argument on the fact that he was elected for a four-year term, saying it was unconstitutional to deny him and other MPs their full terms.

Few at the time expected the challenge to be taken seriously. But the court, possibly to prove its independence from political parties, agreed to examine Melčák's complaint. It is due to rule on its validity Sept. 10. If judges throw the case out, the election will be held as originally planned Oct. 9-10.

If, however, the court decides the complaint deserves further examination, an October election is impossible. If the court agrees the one-time constitutional amendment that set the October election dates may violate the constitution and says a further inquiry is needed, Parliament is prepared to introduce emergency legislation in the form of a permanent constitutional amendment to allow an election in the first week in November, most likely Nov. 6-7.

TOP 09 party leader and former Foreign Affairs Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said the main politicians are basically united on the November election.

The ČSSD, which presently leads in public opinion polls, was concerned a November election would fall too close to the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution Nov. 17 and that the ODS could make political capital out of past ties between the Communists and the ČSSD. The alternative of continued election confusion at a time of economic turbulence, however, was a powerful factor in their changed stance.

"According to the experts - not us - the possible date is Nov. 6-7. We are able to accept that," ODS spokesman Martin Kupka said.

"We do not want a temporary solution that again would be called into question and challenged in court."

One of the most pressing issues for the new Parliament is the budget. Six months after a caretaker government came into office, a state budget is urgently needed to introduce public spending cuts to lower the spiraling fiscal gap.

"The budget is in all our interest, and, after the election, we will all do what we can to have the budget in place on time," Kupka said.

The Constitutional Court agrees an early election is in the public interest but insists the legitimacy of the election overrides other concerns.

"Of course, it is in the interest [of all] that the early election, if held, be indisputably legitimate, so that no one could mock people by telling them afterward the polls are void as the Constitution was breached," court Chairman Pavel Rychetský said.

"There must really be someone to protect the Constitution in a country that - as it is turning out - is not yet a stabilized functioning democracy," Rychetský said.

Both the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and the Green Party want an early election, and former President Václav Havel has called on voters to support the Greens according to a letter read out during the party's campaign launch.

"If we don't want our pond to contain only two fat catfish forever, we must place a pike in it," the letter said. "In addition, catfish usually only think about ways to survive the next fishing; they refuse to think farther forward. But we don't want our country to turn, in 30 years, into an industrial desert that, in spite of securing growth, would irradiate only a single thing: total despair. In other words: Let's vote for the Greens."

The Greens managed to enter the Chamber of Deputies in the 2006 elections for the first time in history and were part of the previous center-right governing coalition with the ODS and the Christian Democrats. However, their latest polling numbers, well under the 5 percent threshold required to gain seats in Parliament, indicate they are unlikely to repeat that success.

A maverick politician

How did this extraordinary affair come about? Miloš Melčák, an independent deputy from Zlín, south Moravia, was born the year World War II broke out. Last month, Melčák complained to the Constitutional Court that the decision to hold a general election in October, after the Topolánek government lost a vote of confidence in March, was unconstitutional. At the time, no one took this seriously. It was seen as a last-gasp effort by a politician who looked likely to lose his seat to retain the privileges, if not the responsibilities, of elected office.

In flowery language, he wrote to the court, "I am not defending my own mandate with this compliant, but the future of the constitutional order of the democratic political rule of law in the Czech Republic. I particularly seek the protection of the will of voters, the people who are the bearers of all power."

He based his argument on the mistaken belief that "he has been elected to a four-year term of office," and no one should legally be entitled to shorten this term. Of course, he was not elected to a four-year term. He was elected to serve in Parliament. If Parliament had to be dissolved early, as often happens in parliamentary democracies, then he would have to face the electorate again.

The MPs had allegedly used extraordinary means to dissolve Parliament, and this was not justified, Melčák argued.

Not a new voice

To everyone's astonishment, the Constitutional Court issued a "preliminary decision" in response to Melčák's complaint, saying that it would consider his argument.

This is not the first time Melčák has been involved in controversy. Elected for the Social Democrats (ČSSD), Melčák joined the right in a confidence vote together with another ČSSD deputy, Michal Pohanka, in January 2007, and their votes helped prop up the ODS government. Any thoughts he had of representing those who sent him to parliament as a ČSSD supporter, as opposed to the length of time he served there, were given short consideration.

The ČSSD, which Melčák joined in 1991, expelled him in February, and ČSSD Chairman Jiří Paroubek, displaying his frustration, called him "a human monster" after Melčák enabled the emergence of the right-wing government.

In an indication of the passions aroused by his switch, Melčák was given police protection, as well as a car and a driver. Bodyguards accompanied Melčák in a sedan between Prague and Zlín while he was still receiving the deputy's transport subsidy of 35,000 Kč monthly.

Unusually for a politician, Melčák turns off his mobile phone and lays low whenever his name appears in the headlines, earning him the sobriquet "The Vanishing Man," there has always been the suspicion that he was working for someone else, a higher authority calling the shots, who wished to remain nameless.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com