The Czech Interior Ministry cut three presidential hopefuls from the upcoming election for submitting invalid data with their nomination packets. The economist Vladimír Dlouhý, Sovereignity party chairwoman Jana Bobošíková and senator Tomio Okamura were axed from the candidate list. The ministry claims their candidate petitions contained too many invalid signatures to qualify. Candidates needed to collect 50,000 signatures from supporters to make it onto the January ballot. Dlouhý, Bobošíková and Okamura can appeal the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court.
There are eight candidates in the running for president. Three were nominated by deputies or senators: Jiří Dienstbier (Social Democrat’s deputy chairman), Karel Schwarzenberg (Foreign Minister, TOP 09) and Přemysl Sobotka (Senate deputy chairman, Civic Democrats). Meanwhile Jan Fischer, Miloš Zeman, Táňa Fischerová, Vladimír Franz and Zuzana Roithová had to collect 50,000 signatures to make their campaigns official. Each collected more than 70,000 signatures. The country’s first direct presidential election will be held Jan. 11-12.
