Participation in the Czech Parliamentary Elections

by Czech Citizens Living Abroad 

Miloslav Rechcigl Jr. 

Last July, the Czech Parliament approved an Amendment to the Law on Parliamentary Elections. According to the provisions of the new Amendment, future elections will not be limited to voters on the territory of the Czech Republic but will also permit participation of Czech citizens living abroad.

This historic change, which enables Czechs abroad to exercise their voting right and thus contribute to the political life in their home country, was welcome by many Czech compatriots. Unfortunately, the practical implementation of the new Law poses one major obstacle, i.e., the places where Czechs may exercise their voting right abroad are only Czech Embassies and Consulates General. Large countries, such as Canada, Australia, or the U.S. have Czech population dispersed over a large area of land and consequently only those individuals close to the Embassies or Consulates are likely to take part in the elections.Others would have to fly several hours to get to the designated voting places. For example, the USA has large Czech communities in states like Illinois, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa or Florida. For such people, participation in the elections would be too costly and time consuming. In fact, the price of traveling to an embassy might be as high as traveling directly to the Czech Republic.

To avoid the aforementioned problems and to make elections in large countries like the USA effective, voters should be able to cast their votes by mail. There are a number of European countries, such as Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, etc., as well as the US, where the ballots can be cast by mail. The Czech Republic should follow their example.

If elections were conducted under the current legislation at the Embassies, it would require about one hundred million Czech Crowns of the State´s budget. That is one-third of the money allotted to the elections as a whole. The participation of voters abroad will, however, be most likely poor and not cost-effective. One wonders whether the effort would be worth it.

Since the Czech Constitutional Court rejected several other provisions of the new Amendment, the matter is back under discussions in the Parliament. It is hoped that this time the Parliament will act wisely and responsively in the interest of the eligible Czech voters abroad.In the US, under similar circumstances, the respective citizens would be bombarding their congressmen and senators to vote according their wishes. And they would act accordingly, because otherwise they would not be elected in the next term. 

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