page_title: 2003 Czech presidential election
section_title: Voting
hierarchical_section_title: 2003 Czech presidential election / First ballot / Voting
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Petr Pithart na křtu knihy Parlament ČR v Informačním centru PČR. English: Czech politician Petr Pithart.
context_page_description: Indirect presidential elections were held in the Czech Republic in January and February 2003 to elect a new President. The Parliament of the Czech Republic failed to elect a candidate on the first two ballots on the 15 and 24 January. However, on the third round of the third ballot on 28 February, Václav Klaus was elected.
context_section_description: Reports before the election had Petr Pithart and Václav Klaus as the favourites for the election, due to disunity in the Social Democrats, with the Social Democrats and some Communists expected to support Pithart on the second round against Václav Klaus. However, there was scepticism that any candidate would be able to be elected in the first ballot on the 15 January 2003. Before the votes the outgoing President Václav Havel delivered a farewell speech for which he received a standing ovation, after urging legislators to follow their conscience.
  The first vote saw no candidate elected, but with the Social Democrat candidate, Jaroslav Bureš, and the Communist candidate, Miroslav Kříženecký being eliminated with both receiving 46 votes from deputies and senators. Almost half of the Social Democrats lawmakers did not vote for Bureš, highlighting the divisions within the party. Very surprising was low support for Petr Pithart. He received only 20 votes in Chamber of Deputies even though KDU-ČSL that nominated him had 21 Members of the Chamber.
  Václav Klaus and Petr Pithart competed in the next two rounds but neither was able to be elected, with Klaus getting the most votes in the Chamber of Deputies, while Pethart received the most votes in the Senate in all three election rounds. Klaus led throughout and in the third round received 113 votes to 89 for Pithart, but as 84 legislators submitted empty ballots neither was able to reach the required 141 votes. The first ballot showed disunity of ČSSD during the election. It also showed that Klaus has much higher support than it was expected.
caption: Petr Pithart came second in the first ballot of the election
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