Elections deferred for MP's salary

Over in the Czech Republic, early parliamentary elections slated for 9 and 10 October are liable to be put off in favour a prolonged electoral campaign: the country’s constitutional court has postponed the scheduled elections owing to MP Miloš Melčák’s appeal against the law to reduce parliamentary tenure. “Politicos in shock: legislative elections whisked away,” reads the front-page headline in Lidové Noviny. Most of the politicians in the running, who had already embarked on costly and contentious campaigns, are clearly peeved. “It would be the ultimate irony if the Constitution were to protect Melčak’s right to sit in Parliament and remain on the parliamentary payroll to the very end,” opines Lidové Noviny. The Prague daily adds that on 10 September the constitutional court is to rule on the vote of no confidence that ousted Mirek Topolánek’s government last March, making way for the current interim executive headed by Jan Fischer.