While all of the headlines are focused on the U.S. primaries few of you will know that the elections for the Czech President are also taking place at the moment.

The election is conducted according to some rules that can be viewed here for those interested. However, the parliament elects the President and the voting system seems something akin to how the Pope is elected by cardinals - albeit without the white smoke!

The election started last week and current incumbent Vaclav Klaus was facing off against challenger Jan Svejnar. Interestingly, Svejnar is a U.S. citizen and actually lives in the States but was born in the Czech Republic. You can find more about him on wikipedia. In the first two rounds of voting there was no clear winner and the third round will take place tomorrow (Friday). Meanwhile, the Communist party has decided to introduce their own candidate - European Parliament Deputy Jana Bobošíková.

Current President - Vaclav Klaus



Challenger - Jan Svejnar

The election started pretty much as it is meant to go on apparently as parliamentarians spent many many hours debating if the election should be public or private eventually deciding on public but then not informing anyone of the actual results until much later. After 2-3 days of constant joggling, manipulation, endless speeches and more speeches, round 2 finished with no clear winner. By this time, the average Czech citizen was already convinced that the elections were a comedy act. But then it got stranger and stranger and stranger...

First came reports that an ODS (right of center) party MP had been offered 2,000,000 Czech Crowns to vote for Klaus. Tis couldn't be substantiated but is being investigated. Next, 5 MP's from a coalition of independents and two MP's who were elected for the left center party but then left to join the governing party claimed to have received enveloped containing bullets stating that if they voted for Klaus they would get the bullet in the heart! Another MP received an anonymous text message threatening her life too.

The two main parties here are now blaming each other for placing undue pressure on MPs to vote for either of the candidates and the whole thing appears to have descended into chaos. Meanwhile the Communist - an ever decreasing number of politicians who seem to have forgotten their history - are unhappy that both current candidates favor siting a U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic and have now nominated their own candidate. The Communists have been playing games during the entire process and why wouldn't they - democracy isn't something they believe in or respect.

So, all eyes are on tomorrows votes to see if this process that started with dignity and appears to have descended into comedy and chaos can in fact be completed. We will see......