PRAGUE: Czech deputies yesterday voted against dissolving parliament and holding snap elections after a corruption scandal that forced the previous government to resign.
The motion failed as expected with 96 deputies voting to dissolve parliament, short of the three-fifths majority of 120 votes needed under the constitution. Ninety-two members voted against.
The left-wing Social Democrats -- tipped by pollsters to win any election -- tabled the dissolution vote amid political turmoil sparked by a bribery and spy scandal.
Their chairman Bohuslav Sobotka called snap elections “the best option for Czech citizens”.
But right-wing parties, which have seen their popularity plunge in part because of the scandal, voted against dissolution. Polls suggest they would lose snap elections.
The high-profile bribery and spy affair forced rightwinger Petr Necas, 48, to step down as prime minister in mid-June. He had been in office since 2010.
This paved the way for veteran leftist President Milos Zeman, the Czech Republic’s first directly elected head of state, to install a technocrat cabinet led by his long-time ally Jiri Rusnok, 52, last week.
With parliamentary parties of all stripes feeling snubbed, analysts say the technocrat economist Rusnok is unlikely to win a separate confidence vote that must be held by August 9 and requires backing from a simple majority of lawmakers in the 200-seat chamber.
“Right now it seems they (Rusnok cabinet) will not pass, but they are not completely without a chance as certain political interests might win them backing,” said Josef Mlejnek, an analyst at Charles University in Prague.
“Some lawmakers don’t want to go, they have mortgages. Someone may promise them that if they back the cabinet, it will take decisions in their favour,” he said.
AFP
