National holiday: National Liberation Day, 8 May; Founding of the
Republic, 28 October
Constitution: ratified 16 December 1992; effective 1 January 1993
Legal system: civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; legal code modified to bring it in line with Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) obligations and to expunge Marxist-Leninist legal theory
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: President Vaclav HAVEL (since 2 February 1993) head of government: Prime Minister Josef TOSOVSKY (since 16 December 1997); Deputy Prime Ministers Josef LUX (since NA June 1992), Jaroslav SEDIVY (since NA January 1998), Jiri SKALICKY (since NA June 1997) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term; election last held 20 January 1998 (next to be held NA January 2003); prime minister appointed by the president election results: Vaclav HAVEL elected president; percent of parliamentary vote-NA; Vaclav HAVEL received 47 of 81 votes in the Senate and 99 out of 200 votes in the Chamber of Deputies (second round of voting)
Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate or Senat (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve staggered two-, four-, and six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Snemovna Poslancu (200 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections: Senate-last held 15-16 and 22-23 November 1996 (next to be held NA November 1998-to replace/re-elect 20 senators serving two-year terms); Chamber of Deputies-last held 31 May-1 June 1996 (early elections to be held NA June 1998) election results: Senate-percent of vote by party-NA; seats by party-governing coalition (ODS 32, KDU-CSL 13, ODA 7), opposition (CSSD 25, KCSM 2, DEU 1, independent 1); Chamber of Deputies-percent of vote by party-NA; seats by party - governing coalition (ODS 68, KDU-CSL 18, ODA 13), opposition (CSSD 61, KCSM 22, SPR-RSC 18)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president for life; Constitutional Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president for life
Political parties and leaders: Civic Democratic Party or ODS [Vaclav KLAUS, chairman]; Civic Democratic Alliance or ODA [Jiri SKALICKY, chairman]; Christian Democratic Union-Czech People's Party or KDU-CSL [Josef LUX, chairman]; Czech Social Democrats or CSSD-left opposition [Milos ZEMAN, chairman]; Communist Party or KSCM - left opposition [Miroslav GREBENICEK, chairman]; Assembly for the Republic or SPR-RSC-extreme right radical [Miroslav SLADEK, chairman]; Democratic Union or DEU [Ratibor MAJZLIK, chairman] note: the governing coalition resigned in November 1997; a caretaker government, led by Prime Minister Josef TOSOVSKY, was appointed by President HAVEL in December 1997; new general elections will most likely be held in June 1998; there are three new parties that have not been voted into office, but were created in the wake of Prime Minister KLAUS' resignation: Freedom Union or US [Jan RUML, chairman], Conservative Consensus Party [Ivan MASEK and Cestmir HOFHANZL], and Party of the Democratic Center [Josef WAGNER, chairman]
Political pressure groups and leaders: Czech-Moravian Chamber of Trade
Unions; Civic Movement
International organization participation: Australia Group, BIS, CCC,
CE (guest), CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EU (applicant), FAO, IAEA,
IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,
Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NSG, OECD, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD,
UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMOP, UNOMIG, UNPREDEP, UPU, WEU (associate partner),
WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC