ČTK

Countdown to 2018 Czech Presidential Election

Prague, Nov 24 (CTK) – A brief survey of basic dates and deadlines for the direct election of the president of the Czech Republic the first round of which will take place on January 12-13, 2018:

 

2017 (past deadlines)

 

Nov 7 (66 days before election) – the deadline for presidential candidates to apply for registration with the Interior Ministry; the deadline for the candidates to open transparent bank accounts for the financing of their campaigns and for presenting the election committees responsible for the financing of their campaigns

 

Nov 7-13 – Interior Ministry checks the applications for registration

 

Nov 15 – the deadline for correcting possible defects in the applications in reaction to the ministry’s call (no new signatures can be added under the petitions in support of the candidacies)

 

Nov 23 – the deadline for the removing of possible defects

 

Nov 24 – the final decision on approval or rejection of the candidates is announced

 

Schedule of other events:

 

Nov 30 – the deadline for releasing information on the candidates at the www.volby.cz election server by the Czech Statistical Office

 

Dec 23 (2O days before election) – the deadline for the registration of candidates based on court decisions and for assigning numbers to the individual candidates by lot by the State Electoral Commission

 

Dec 27 – launch of the two-week period ending on January 10, within which each candidate may appear for up to five hours on the public Czech Television and Czech Radio.

 

2018

 

Jan 9 (3 days before election) – ballot papers to be delivered to voters; a ban on the release of results of opinion polls related to the presidential election takes effect until the end of the first round of the vote (until Jan 13, 14:00)

 

Jan 11 (24 hours before election)- withdrawal of candidacies can be announced by 14:00; lists of voters are completed.

 

Jan 12-13 ( – first round of the presidential election (Friday, Jan 12: from 14:00 to 22:00, Saturday, Jan 13: from 08:00 to 14:00). At Czech diplomatic offices on the American continent the election is to be held on January 11-12, from 14:00 to 21:00 local time, due to the time shift.

 

Jan 26-27 – second round of the presidential election is held unless one of the candidates wins a majority of the vote in the first round (in America, on January 25-26 due to time shift);

 

– The two most successful candidates meet in the runoff. On January 22-24, they may appear for up to one hour on the public Czech Television and Czech Radio. On January 23, a ban on release of results of opinion polls related to the presidential election takes effect until the end of the second round of the vote (until Jan 27, 14:00).