Otakar Motejl re-elected ombudsman
Motejl's candidacy was supported by 99 out of 188 deputies present.
Other three candidates did not succeed in the lower house.
President Vaclav Klaus has nominated Jiri Witzany, former vice-chancellor of the Czech Technical University (CVUT), and John Bok, head of the Salamoun association in support of independent judiciary in the Czech Republic. The Senate has also proposed senator Jitka Seitlova (for Independent movement) for ombudsman.
Motejl said that he would like to consider possible improvements of the ombudsman's work before his new term in office starts. He will present his visions for another six years in his annual report that he must submit to parliament by March 2007.
Motejl said he would not plan any fundamental changes in the ombudsman's office and he would not demand that his powers be extended either.
During the past six years, the ombudsman received some 30,000 citizens' complaints while he was authorised to handle almost 60 percent of them.
Ombudsman is to defend citizens again red tape and protect their rights.
He has the right to interfere in the proceedings of particular cases in administrative offices, including ministries, but he is not authorised to order institutions to take concrete steps.
Ombudsman can only report shortcomings to a higher body or to the Chamber of Deputies or possibly release the case in public.
MPs will also elect deputy ombudsman in late January, 2007, as current deputy ombudsman Anna Sabatova will end in office on January 31 and she will not run for the post again.
Motejl, lawyer by profession, worked as a defence counsel. In May 1968 he became a Supreme Court judge in Prague, but he was fired in 1970 during the "normalisation" following the 1968 Warsaw Pact troops invasion of Czechoslovakia, which crashed the Communist-led reform movement.
In the 1970s and the 1980s, Motejl defended dissidents and representatives of the underground culture, including the legendary band Plastic People of the Universe, in framed-up communist trials.
After the collapse of communism in November 1989, Motejl was the chairman of the Supreme Court of the Czechoslovak Federation from 1990 and of the Czech Republic after Czechoslovakia'split in 1993.
In 1998, he was appointed justice minister in the Social Democrat (CSSD) government of Milos Zeman. He left the post in October 2000 since, he said, he failed to push through a judiciary reform.
Two months later Motejl became the first ombudsman in the Czech Republic. In 2002, he was one of the four considered CSSD candidates for president.
Motejl will take ombudsman's oath in the Chamber of Deputies within 10 days, his current mandate expires on Monday.
source CTK:
http://www.ctk.cz/zpravy/anglicke_view.php?id=225604
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