PragueBuzz!

As we already both know that the presidential elections are approaching, I would like, first, to talk about the presidential authority and then I will give you a brief overview of the election process in the Czech Parliament.

President’s Authority
The prime  minister is the head of executive power in the Czech Republic. The president’s power is quite limited; he acts a an independent figure among the Legislative power, the Chamber of Deputies and Senate and the Executive power, the Government and Judicial power.

Beside the co-authorization which has to be countersignatured by the prime minister, the president can act on his own given that he follows the Czech Constitution.

• Appoints and recalls the Prime Minister and other members of the Government; accepts their resignation, recalls the Government and its resignation; the government has to be within 30 days confirmed by a simple majority of House of Deputies members.
• Authorizes the Government the resignation of which the President has accepted or which he has recalled to execute their office temporarily until a new Government is appointed;
• Appoints Justices of the Constitutional Court, its Chief Justice and Assistant Chief Justices;
• Pardons and mitigate penalties imposed by the court, order not to initiate criminal proceedings and suspend them if they are already initiated, and expunge sentences.
• Has the right to return to the Parliament and enacts law with the exception of Constitutional Acts. This can be overruled by a simple majority of House of Deputies members.
• Appoints the President and the Vice-President of the Supreme Control Office.
• Appoints members of the Bank Board of the Czech National Bank.

Election Process

President is elected by joined meetings of both chambers of Parliament: Deputies and Senate.

The candidate has to be Czech citizen, at least 40 years old and gains votes according to the below procedure:

• The voting can last up to three rounds until a person is elected.
• The candidate has to be nominated by at least 10 members of Parliament, indiscriminately if they are members of The Chamber of Deputies or Senate.

3 voting rounds

• In the first round, the majority votes of the Deputes and Senate, separately, are required. In no candidate gains enough votes, a candidate with the highest number of votes from each chamber (2 persons) advances to the second round.
• In the second round, the majority votes of each chamber’s attending (present at the time) members and  are required. If no candidate receives enough votes, then both automatically progress to the third round.
• In the third round, the votes of attending members of The Chamber of Deputies and Senate combined would be sufficient enough of votes to be elected a president.
• If a president is not elected in the third round, the entire process starts from the beginning, by the nominations of presidential candidates.

It is expected that due to the equal number of votes between two current candidates - Klaus, Svejnar, the president will be elected in the third round.

Written by Jan S.

In deed, the president was not elected in the 3rd round as predicted as neither of them won the majority votes. Another attempt will take place this Friday.

 On February 8th, the Czech Republic’ Parliament, composed of two chambers, The Chamber of Deputies and Senate, will start the process of picking the new president.  Members of both chambers will choose from two candidates, Vaclav Klaus and Jan Svejnar.

Václav Klaus, the current president, to stay in office for the next 5 years will fight his challenger Jan Svejnar, an internationally recognized economist.  Klaus, former chairman of the current strongest political party Civic Democrats (ODS), relies on the support of his former colleagues and the unlikely alliance with Christian Democrats ( KDU - CSL).

ODS’ recent bill offers a big settlement to the Catholic Church for property expropriated by the government during Communist regime.  This “generous” move has more or less attracted Christian Democrats’ votes for Klaus since the majority of KDU-CSL are devout Catholics.  ODS is obviously thoughtful, don’t you think?

Jan Svejnar, endorsed by the Green and Social Democrats Parties, is trying to show new directions for his presidential office in contrast to Václav Klaus, who is infamous for creating inconsistent pictures of the Czech Republic abroad.  Klaus often presents his personal opinions as if they are official opinions of the Czech Government, thus confusing our abroad partners.  He, many times, expresses his skeptical attitude toward Global Warming and EU integration, conflicts with Czech official government’s foreign policy which actually does heed the danger of Global Warming and the importance to integrate with EU.

 Jan Svejnar, despite being a respectable economist and not connecting to any past corruption scandals like Václav Klaus, unfortunately has lower chance to be elected.  He lacks political experience, and even the Green and Social Parties can not give him enough votes.   He desperately needs support from the Communist Party, which   has not yet decided for whom they will cast their votes. They are tactically waiting for the higher bidder for their few but significant votes.  Václav Klaus, this election’s crowned prince, does not need Communist Party if KDU-CSL will vote for them.  On the other hand, it will be difficult for Jan Svejnar to win over the Communistic Party as he is a liberal economist, living in the USA. It’s an irony imagining how Communist voters, who strongly oppose anything related to capitalism and the USA, would approve such choice.

Next time, I will tell you more about the election process, how many votes in each round are necessary for a candidate to progress to next level and eventually be elected a president. Fun topic isn’t it?

Written by Jan S.

Where to Buy Rice Cookers in Prague

How can one make real Asian dishes without first cooking a quality bowl of rice? And how can one make a quality bowl of rice with a rice cooker? During my first year in this country, I found myself burning over three pots, four plastic utensils, countless of holed rice bags because I forgot to stand by the stove and keep vigilant eyes of my future meals, check water and stir the rice. Even when the rice was done, I would be very lucky if it was cooked properly. Indian curry chicken, Japanese sushi, Chinese kungpao and Vietnamese fried veggie had no chance to turn into real dishes because of their messy rice portion.

I desperately searched many department stores in Prague for a rice cooker in a year, but the closest ones I found were steam pots to make bread and dumplings. Upon discovering this, I turned to my boyfriend and said “Are you guys kidding me? You have pots for making your stupid bread and not my precious rice?” The Vietnamese supermarket at Sapa sells plenty of steam rice cookers, but the prices were around 2000 CZK and without warranty. My typical Asian mother, worrying about my food supply, tries to convince me to let her ship a small rice cooker from the US. Tempted, I almost let her do it before realizing the faulty of this solution: US appliances don’t work with European electric sockets. For this to work, I will need a converter and an adaptor as well.

I did occasionally eat rice by the boxes as Czech and expats do, I bought 10-kg bag of rice from the Vietnamese Sapa market. But worms started getting into the bags because I got lazy cooking my rice, and because nobody wanted to eat nasty burned rice cooked in regular pots.

“Can a girl eat rice with some dignity?” Sometimes I wonder.

And an African dude from Senegal answered my secret prayer. He invited my boyfriend and I over to his new flat for a dinner party eating Senegali curry chicken. I forgot to ask how he made the rice because I was ashamed that some African managed to cook rice better than an Asian who grew up with the damn thing.

Had had enough with his pots and utensils being burned in addition to a smelly kitchen; my boyfriend had bought me a real rice cooker from Daart for only 900 CZK. Yoohoo!  I cooked the first rice on Christmas and ate it with only soy sauce, cucumber and chilly pepper.

Oh holly molly cow coming out of Czech empty heaven, the simple meal was goooooooooood.

On the website, click on Maly dom�c� spot?ebi?e-> Parn� hrnce (Small Home Appliance -> Steam pot)

Note:  The pot might not be available at every store. Call them first to ask. We bought this rice cooker in the store at Zlicin. Czech employees might not know what you are referring to so don’t expect their help too much. Czechs might not know such electric pots for cooking rice exist. My roommate kept complaining that her parents like to eat rice but that they burned it a lot and did not know to cook it properly. Upon seeing our rice cooker, she immediately purchased the same one for her parent’s Christmas present.

[Datart]