THE CONSTITUENT DECLARATION OF
THE CARETAKER CIVIC GOVERNMENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
DEMOCRACY FOR ALL
Our motto:
Let all of us go to the polls this time!
If we do not want to be fooled, cheated and deceived again,
Let us vote nonparliamentary parties!
Nonparliamentary parties being aware of the fact that our
political system and political practice are not truly democratic, and that in
many cases, are even unconstitutional in the Czech Republic, a member state of
NATO and a candidate for European Union, have decided, irrespective of great
differences in programs and ideas, to combine their force. On 21st May 2002 they
set up the caretaker civic government and decided that after the forthcoming
elections and according to their results, they will establish the caretaker
civic parliament with the aim of organizing free elections. Free and democratic
elections can be achieved through these common goals:
1) The abolition of both the information monopoly of
parliamentary parties in mass media and tough cut-throat discrimination of
citizens and nonparliamentary parties.
2) The abolition of the present liquidating and
unconstitutional closing-down law on elections and the adoption of such a law
that would enable equal position in political, media and economic sphere for all
citizens and all nonparliamentary parties.
1) INFORMATION BLOCKADE AND DISCRIMINATION OF OPINIONS OF
CITIZENS AND NONPARLIAMENTARY PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS IN CZECH MASS MEDIA
During election campaing the political parties must be neither
advantaged nor discriminated under the pretext that they are parliamentary or
nonparliamentary, because in election competition all parties, being candidate
parties, are equal. We consider as very discriminational the fact that four
parliamentary parties that gained only 64% of votes of legitimate voters in the
last elections occupy from 98,5 to 99% of advertising space allocated for the
whole of all candidate parties. While only 1,0 to 1,5% of advertising space is
allotted to other 25 candidate nonparliamentary parties and movements that
managed to gain more that 11% of votes in the last elections. Other about 25% of
the legitimate voters did not take part in the last elections at all because
they did not learn about anybody whom they would like to support. Other voters
voted for some of the present parliamentary parties mostly out of despair,
because they did not have anybody to vote for, so they at least voted against
somebody. This show to what extent is the Czech post-communist "demo-totality"
deformed after 17th November 1989. In our country there are at least 36% of
citizens - taxpayers - whose opinions are not practically presented in mass
media. Due to tough publishing or editorial censorship and information embargo
and without radical change of the whole information system, these citizens and
voters will not have any chance to learn about really diverse political offers
of nonparliamentary parties that will be running for seats in Parliament and in
other elections, in referendums or in other occasions and that solicit for their
support. Citizens will not have chance to decide correctly and with full
knowledge of the affairs in such situations. This practice should be changed as
quickly as possible.
Due to the reasons stated above we want a radical change of the
present system of presenting information - very often misinformation - pursued
not only by private mass media, but also by public mass media (e.g.state
television) which, in reality, are only factories for making public opinion.
They are paid by taxpayers who are manipulated by the use of finance, power and
influence of the most powerful parties, groups and multinational companies. The
role of the citizen - taxpayer - in this system is zero. We want to harmonize
the whole information system with the rights for true, complete and balanced
information that are already guaranteed to our citizens not only in our
Constitution, but also in the International Treaty on Civic and Political
Rights, which was ratified already by the communist Czechoslovakia and which is
a part of the Code 120/1976. The assertion of these rights was fight for by
Charter 77, the Committee for the Protection of Unjustly Prosecuted and the
first really political pre-November opposition force: "Movement for Civic
Liberty" the basic manifesto of which "Democracy for all" we had to put on the
escutcheon due to restrained and nondemocratic situation in our country. Twelve
years ago, during the days of "Velvet Revolution" and shortly after it, all
these rights were discussed by the victorious Civic Forum of the present
president Václav Havel, Petr Pithart, Václav Klaus, Hana Marvanová, Miloš Zeman
and others who are so far the top representatives of our state. As concerns the
matters of freedom and democracy understood not formally but as the possibility
of real participation in the administration of our own country, we return to the
very beginning.
1) UNCONSTITUTIONAL DECEITFUL ELECTION LAW AIMED AGAINST THE
OPENNESS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AND AGAINST THE RULE OF EQUAL COMPETITION
BETWEEN CITIZENS AND POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SPHERE
The present unjust political system, which is called mafia
system even by the president Václav Havel, is perpetuated in its negative
perfection and closeness against any attempt to enter it from the outside and is
kept alive not only through tough censorship applied in post-November mass
media, but especially through deceitful and unconstitutional election law. Its
deceitfulness and unconstitutionality is based on the following well-tried
principles:
a) 5% barrier for the entry into the Parliament
While, according to mathematical and logic rules, 0,5% of votes
are necessary for getting one mandate in the Parliament that has 200 members,
our present "democratic" representatives of the post-communist Parliament raised
this barrier ten times for us - citizens and taxpayers - up to 5%!!!
This law violates the principle of proportionality which says:
As many percent of votes are gained by the political party in the elections, as
many percent of representatives will be in the Lower Chamber of the Parliament.
b) Finance entry barrier (so called non returnable
contribution) fixed by the parliamentary parties instead of election deposit
which was canceled by the Constitutional Court because it was found
unconstitutional.
In election competition, this unconstitutional
finance barrier sharply discriminates all new or small parties and movements
which did not feather their nest during the process of fraudulent privatisation
of the national wealth and, on the contrary to the parliament parties, do not
take hundreds of millions of crowns of support drawn from the money of
taxpayers.
Fortunately, even some Courts start to realize this
unconstitutionality of the present election law and they take it into account in
their decisions. Recently, the "Party for the Abolishment of the Senate"
attained the registration of its list of candidates and the printing of their
voting cards in spite of the fact that this party rejected to pay this
unconstitutional barrier.
c) Financial after-elections 1,5% barrier
This discrimination legalized by the Parliament violated the
equality of votes which is guaranteed by the Constitution, and this time even in
the finance sphere. While some votes will bring 100,- crowns each to some
political parties and in addition these parties will get high state contribution
in tens or even hundreds millions of crowns for the support of their further
activity, other parties will not receive any money for their votes. As concerns
small or new parties, which did not manage to overcome the discrimination
barriers stated here and did not get at least 1,5% votes, this unconstitutional
discrimination makes impossible for them to overcome the discrimination barriers
stated here and to survive to the next elections and get the chance to
strengthen their results.
This unconstitutional principle pushed through by the
parliamentary parties was even rejected by the Constitutional Court in its own
present practice. In 1998 the movement "The Independents" fought the Parliament
elections and they got 0,87% of votes. Thanks to their reference to the decision
of the Constitutional Court, the movement "the Independents" represented by its
chairman ing.Jiří Horák enforced the breakthrough decision, when though they did
not reach the fixed 1,5% votes for their results in the elections, they managed
to obtained by court order the corresponding financial sum of money.
2) The law on political parties
Under the pretext of discrepancy in the end of year report the
present wording of the law on political parties enables to misuse this law
against the parties and movements which are not represented in the Parliament.
The adoption ( and also the tabling of the proposal on suspension of the
activity of the party) is decided by the House of Representatives of the
Parliament of the Czech Republic which can reject the report on the basis of
little formal shortcomings and the law does not impose the duty for the House of
Representatives to call the respective party to rectify the detected
shortcomings. The "judges" in the political arena are the parliamentary parties
and the democratic political competition is not in their interest.
Therefore even debts of many millions of crows, revocation of
sponsor donations and also foreign donators who deceased without knowing that
their name was used for covering the donations have not become the reason for
the proposal on suspension of the activity of any parliamentary party. On the
contrary little formal shortcoming or one day delay in submitting the end of
year report have been a welcome opportunity for the intimidation of
nonparliamentary parties. This "uneven measurement" is particularly visible if
we realize that the activity of the parliamentary parties ( and also the quality
of their bookkeeping) is paid by all taxpayers - including those who did not
vote for them - in hundreds of crowns every year.
Petr Cibulka - chairman of the Right Block, portable: +0420 605
230 238
Jan Bednář - deputy chairman of the Humanistic Alliance,
portable: +0420 608 731162
Jiří Hudeček - chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism, +
0420 221952333
Míla Jebavá - member of the board of the Right Block -
translation - English contact - +0420 608 215455
THE CONSTITUENT DECLARATION OF THE CARETAKER CIVIC GOVERNMENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
