Christian Democrats perform u-turn and opt for secret presidential ballot

The leadership of the Christian Democratic Party has urged its members to push for a secret ballot in this Friday’s presidential elections. This is a u-turn on the part of the Christian Democrats, who, in the first round of presidential elections last week, pushed for a public vote. The governing Civic Democrats are also for a secret ballot, which is said to favour their candidate for the presidency, Václav Klaus. It is thought that if both the Christian and the Civic Democrats vote in favour of a secret ballot, then they should have enough votes to push this method of election through. The leader of the Christian Democrats, Jiří Čunek, said that he had changed his stance on the way the elections should be conducted because of the ‘undignified character’ of last week’s public vote.

Author: Rosie Johnston