The chairwoman of the ANO deputies, Alena Schillerová, right at the beginning of the meeting tried to take advantage of the low number of MPs in the meeting hall and unsuccessfully requested a postponement of the discussion until the beginning of September this year. Then she scolded the coalition MPs for not coming to work on time for the meeting, which they themselves initiated. The government camp accompanied her words by banging on the benches.
She thus followed up on similar attempts to postpone the meeting from Thursday. However, even on this day, the opposition repeatedly tried to attract the attention of the coalition, each time the members of the government majority managed to gather in the meeting hall in sufficient numbers so that the opposition’s efforts to postpone the debate in the vote failed.
Will it cripple the electoral system?
Criticism from opposition representatives combined repeated claims that the postal election is purposeful and does not guarantee compliance with the constitutional principle of equality, directness and secrecy of voting. Schiller’s speech was no exception, as today, as on Thursday, she took advantage of the opportunity to speak with preferential speaking rights.
“Submitted the form of postal election will cripple our electoral system and threaten confidence in elections. A will deprive the Czech Republic of democratic certainty of incalculable value,she declared. According to her, behind the postal election is the coalition’s attempt to influence the election result in its favor.
Okamura on the legislative scum
Another expressed himself similarly to Schiller speaker with priority, SPD leader Tomio Okamura. According to him, the proposed form of voting by mail is “purposive legislative rubbish”. according to Okamura, it will weaken trust in democracy. Behind the pattern he sees the coalition’s efforts to improve the election result “by a few votes from abroad”. Chairman of the SPD in addition believes that this is the first step towards the introduction of postal elections in the Czech Republic as well. The possible massive manipulation of votes would then arouse only massive resistance, which could lead to civil war, he warned.
High risk of double voting
The ANO movement, which, like the SPD, failed in the previous parliamentary elections among Czechs abroad, advocates postponing the effective date of the proposal until the beginning of 2026. From voting by mail wants to exclude European Parliament elections due to the alleged greatest risk of double voting. He wants to limit postal voting to those Czech citizens living abroad who have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, property or pay taxes or levies. SPD representatives have repeatedly proposed rejecting the electoral amendment.
According to the draft, Czech citizens who they will be entered in the voter list at the locally competent embassy. The proposal concerns presidential, parliamentary and European elections. According to the draft, Czechs abroad could vote by letter for the first time in the next regular elections to the House of Representatives in 2025. The YES movement insists on a postponement until 2026. It wants to exclude the European Parliament elections from postal voting due to the alleged greatest risk of double voting.
On Friday, the end of the discussion at 6 pm? At the terminal station!
After long debates and votes on when to adjourn and for how many minutes – which apparently gave some MPs trouble counting – it seemed certain that The House of Representatives will end the general discussion on the coalition’s proposal for a postal election today at the stroke of 6 p.m.
The coalition pushed for it, pointing out that the objections of the opposition are repeated in the debate. At the same time, due to the threat of obstruction, she approved the proposal that deputies will be able to submit amendments to the amendment on postal voting until nightfalli. The representatives of the ANO movement protested against this, the chairwoman of the ANO deputies, Alena Schillerová, requested a break in her faction’s meeting until 1:05 p.m.
However, after 2 p.m., following an agreement between the coalition and the opposition, the lower house canceled its resolution.
Marek Benda: Needless talk
Restrictions on general debate proposed by the chairman of the ODS deputies Marek Benda, which marked the discussion of the amendment on the correspondence election for Czechs abroad for “very undignified”. “Many hours were spent in idle talk,” he remarked. He also pointed out that the opposition repeatedly tries to postpone the discussion of the amendments, even though he knows he has no chance of success.
When shortening the general debate used by the coalition in the second round of negotiations unconventional procedure, when Ondřej Lochman (STAN) suggested that at its conclusion, a vote be taken to return the electoral amendment to the constitutional-legal committee for a new discussion. Thanks to this, Benda was able to propose to the Chamber to set a fixed time for this vote at 18:00.
Oh yeah, they want to go hockey, Schiller said to herself
Chairman of the Constitutional and Legal Committee Radek Vondráček (YES) argued that Bend’s proposal is “a novelty that hasn’t happened in 30 years”. Vondráček recalled that the general debate in the second reading of drafts serves to introduce amendments. Now, according to him, it may happen that some MPs do not get a chance to properly justify their adjustments.
“You want to go to hockey. And that’s the whole truth,” stated the chairman of the ANO club, Alena Schillerová (ANO), regarding the limitation of the general debate, reminding that the hockey championship starts today in the Czech Republic.
The amendment of some parameters of the correspondence election has already been proposed by the constitutional and legal committee. These will probably be the only proposals that the House will accept in the final vote.
