What is Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll.?

Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll., on the implementation of a referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and amending certain laws (Act on the implementation of a referendum) — Act on the implementation of a referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and amending certain laws (Act on the implementation of a referendum).

When it became Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. effectiveness?

Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. became effective 25.04.2003.

Is Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. still valid?

Yes, Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. is still valid and effective.

How many times was it Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. amended?

Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. has 3 time versions of the text.

Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll. - Act on the implementation of a referendu...

114

THE LAW

of 17 April 2003

on the implementation of the referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and amending certain laws (Law on the implementation of the referendum)

Parliament has decided on this law of the Czech Republic:

ČÁST PRVNÍ

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REFERENCE ON THE ACCESSION OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

HLAVA I

INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

§ 1

(1) Under the Constitutional Act on a referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union1 (hereinafter referred to as the Constitutional Act), this Act provides for further conditions for the exercise of the right to vote in a referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union (hereinafter referred to as the "referendum '), as well as details of the design, announcement and implementation of the referendum and its outcome.

(2) The Treaty of Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union must be accessible for consultation by each of the municipal authorities which are the matrix offices at least 21 days before the referendum.

Voting right in referendum

§ 2

The referendum shall be held by secret ballot based on the universal, equal and direct voting right in permanent constituencies and separate constituencies (hereinafter referred to as the "district") established under the Act on elections to councils of the municipalities (2) in the Czech Republic.

§ 3

(1) Every citizen of the Czech Republic who has reached the age of 18 at least the second day of holding the referendum (hereinafter referred to as the "entitled citizen") has the right to vote in a referendum.

(2) The obstacles to exercising the right to vote in a referendum are:

(a) waiver of legal capacity, 3)

(b) a special statutory restriction on personal freedom for the protection of the health of the people, (4); or

(c) the service of a professional soldier abroad, (5) if the nature of the service performed or its place of exercise does not allow the exercise of the right to vote in a referendum.

HLAVA II

DECISION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC ON THE DECLARATION OF REFERENCE

§ 4

(1) The President of the Republic declares his decision. 6) The President of the Republic's decision to declare a referendum ("the President's decision ') shall be published in the Collection of Laws. The day of the announcement of the referendum is the day of the distribution of the relevant amount of the Collection of Laws in which the President's decision is published.

(2) The President's decision shall include:

(a) the days of the referendum (§ 7),

(b) a question for a referendum under Article 1 (2) of the Constitutional Law;

(c) in the case of a repeated referendum pursuant to Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitutional Law, the person who submitted the application for its publication.

(3) If the Constitutional Court declares that the procedure for the implementation of a referendum was not in accordance with or under constitutional law, the President of the Republic will re-declare a referendum within 30 days of the date of the publication of the decision in the case in question, so that the referendum will take place no later than 90 days after the date of the publication of that finding by the Constitutional Court.

(4) If the President of the Republic decides not to declare a referendum, this decision shall be published in the Collection of Laws. Such a decision contains the reasons why the President of the Republic decided not to declare the referendum. 7)

HLAVA III

IMPLEMENTATION OF REFERENCE

§ 5

Lists for the referendum

(1) The list of eligible citizens under this Act is considered to be a permanent list of voters under the Act on Elections to Municipality Councils (8) and in military outages under the Act on Defence Assurance of the Czech Republic9 (hereinafter referred to as the "Permanent List '). The law on elections to municipal councils shall apply mutatis mutandis to the right to consult a permanent list and to require the addition of data or to make corrections. 8)

(2) A special list of eligible citizens (hereinafter referred to as the "special list") shall be maintained by the Municipal Office, the Municipal Office, the Municipality, the Office of the Territorial or Urban District of the Statutory City and the Office of the City of the City of Prague (hereinafter referred to as the "Municipal Office") for authorised citizens who are not registered for permanent residence in their territorial area, (10) where appropriate, for the reasons referred to in points (a) to (c), they may not vote in the district in whose permanent list they are registered, and who:

(a) perform basic or alternative military service in the district of the municipality, in the capital of Prague, or in territorial subdivisions of the statutory cities in the district of the city or district of the city (hereinafter referred to as "the municipality");

(b) are in a medical institution, a medical institution or similar institution;

(c) are in a police cell, in the place where the detention is carried out or in the place where the prison sentence is carried out, 11); or

(d) vote on the ballot (§ 6).

(3) The municipal authority of the authorised citizen referred to in paragraph 2 (a) shall enter in a separate list, on the basis of the information of the relevant master and of the authorised citizen referred to in paragraph 2 (b) and (c), on the basis of the information of the head of the relevant institute, establishment or establishment. The relevant information must be transmitted to the municipality no later than 7 days before the vote and updated as necessary.

(4) The competent master, the head of the relevant institute, establishment or establishment, in cooperation with the local competent municipal authority, the municipal authority in the municipality where the authorised citizen is registered on the permanent list, shall send confirmation that the authorised citizen has been registered on a separate list.

(5) At the latest two working days before the referendum date, the municipal authority shall send the competent district commission an extract from the permanent list and an extract from the special list containing a list of citizens entitled to vote in that district.

(6) A special list, which is kept by the representative and consular authorities of the Czech Republic, with the exception of the consular offices of the honorary consular officers (hereinafter referred to as the "representative office") under the Act on Elections to the Parliament of the Czech Republic, 12) is considered to be a list of eligible citizens under this Act.

§ 6

Voting card

(1) An authorised citizen who will not be able to vote in the district on whose permanent list he is registered shall issue a voting card at his request and shall record that fact on the permanent list and on his extract to the District Commission. The voting card for an authorised citizen residing abroad shall be issued by the representative office with which the authorised citizen is kept on a separate list; the entry concerning the issue of the Voting Card shall be recorded by the representative office in a separate list.

(2) The authorised citizen may apply for a voting card from the date of the announcement of the referendum, in person, until the conclusion of the permanent list or special list referred to in Article 5 (6), or for a written document bearing the officially certified signature of the authorised citizen, received at least 7 working days before the date of the referendum, to the person holding the permanent list or special list referred to in Article 5 (6); the municipal office or representative office shall transmit the voting card to the authorised citizen directly or to a person who has demonstrated his full authority with the officially certified signature of the authorised citizen applying for the voting card or to the authorised citizen.

(3) On the days of the referendum, the Voting Card authorises the entry into the list in any district in the Czech Republic.

§ 7

The conduct of a referendum

The referendum is held in the Czech Republic in two days, Friday and Saturday. The first day starts at 14.00 and ends at 22.00. The next day, the vote starts at 8.00 and ends at 14.00. The day of the referendum shall be the first day of the vote, unless otherwise provided for by this law.

§ 8

Voting lists

(1) The ballot must state:

(a) the information referred to in Article 4 (2) contained in the President's decision;

(b) information on voting arrangements;

(c) in the left part the word "YES," in the right part the word "NO" and next to each of these words the box.

(2) The Ministry of the Interior will ensure the printing of ballots. The ballots shall be printed in characters of the same type, of the same size, on paper of the same colour, quality and dimensions. The ballots are stamped by the Ministry of Interior.

(3) The Voting Ticket will be sent by the Ministry of the Interior through the entrusted municipal authorities (13) to the mayors of the municipalities, the primary of the statutory cities which are not subdivided and in the territorial subdivided statutory cities and the capital of Prague to the mayors of urban areas or urban districts (hereinafter referred to as "the Mayor"). The mayor will arrange the delivery of ballots to the District Commission.

(4) In the event of obvious printing errors, the ballots shall not be reprinted; The Ministry of the Interior will secure through the regional offices, in the capital city of Prague the City of Prague (hereinafter the "Regional Office"), the posting of information on these errors in all voting rooms, with the correct indication.

§ 9

Referendum bodies

(1) The tasks associated with the preparation and conduct of the vote and in determining the results of the referendum shall be performed and the status of the bodies for the referendum shall be:

(a) State Election Commission,

(b) Ministry of the Interior,

(c) Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

(d) Czech Statistical Office,

(e) the Regional Office;

f) entrusted municipal office, 13) in the capital city of Prague office of the municipal district, in the cities of Brno, Ostrava and Plzeň office of the municipal district or district (hereinafter referred to as the "entrusted municipal office"),

(g) the municipal authority;

(h) the Mayor,

(i) the representative office;

(j) the District Commission.

(2) The activities of the referendum bodies are the performance of the state administration.

§ 10

State Election Commission

State Election Commission created under special legislation14)

(a) coordinate the preparation, organisation and conduct of the vote, check the voting process and the census;

(b) supervise the security of acts necessary for the organisational technical security of the referendum;

(c) make a record of the outcome of the vote in a referendum and forward it to the President of the Republic without delay;

(d) issue, in justified cases, authorisations for the presence of other persons when counting votes by the District Commission.

§ 11

Ministry of Interior

(a) manage the organisational and technical preparation, conduct and conduct of the referendum methodically, check the voting process and the census;

(b) deal with complaints about organisational technical security of the referendum at regional level;

(c) provide information from the population register (10) for the purpose of keeping permanent lists;

d) in cooperation with the Czech Statistical Office ensures the operation of a single telecommunications connection system in the Czech Republic,

(e) the printing of ballots and other material related to the exercise of the right to vote in a referendum and for the detection of its results.

§ 12

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall transmit special lists to the Ministry of the Interior by representative offices on the technical data carrier.

§ 13

Czech Statistical Office

(1) The Czech Statistical Office draws up a binding system for referendums for the authorities for the detection and processing of referendum results and ensures that the relevant software is produced for the purposes of processing and reporting the results of the referendum vote.

(2) The Czech Statistical Office further

(a) provide for a technical system for the processing of voting results in the referendum referred to in paragraph 1 at the workplaces set up by the entrusted municipal authorities and the State Election Commission; working with the Ministry of the Interior, Regional Authorities and Municipal Authorities,

(b) process the overall results of the referendum vote (§ 34) and transmit these data without delay to the State Election Commission;

(c) technically ensure the availability and provision of interim and overall voting results in a referendum;

(d) provide the staff of the Czech Statistical Office with the task of identifying and processing the results of the referendum, as well as the necessary number of other persons necessary for the performance of these tasks,

(e) conduct training of designated members of district commissions for the system for the detection and processing of voting results in a referendum;

(f) issue written evidence to the District Commission, in the form of a computerised report, certifying that the results from the District have been taken into account without error in the further processing;

(g) deal with complaints about the function of technical equipment and related software used in the processing of the results of the referendum vote;

(h) transmit the minutes of the course and the outcome of the vote taken from the Regional Commissions to the custody of the competent authorised municipal authority no later than 10 days after completion of the processing of the results at the level of the entrusted municipal office;

(i) provide information on the results of the referendum on request in the required territorial breakdown following the announcement of the vote in the referendum.

(3) Only a member of staff of the Czech Statistical Office who is authorised under paragraph 2 (d) shall be entitled to:

(a) to stay in the room where the district committee sums up the votes;

(b) take over a copy of the record of the course and the outcome of the vote;

(c) set a time limit for the removal of errors and the transmission of a new record of the conduct and outcome of the vote;

(d) issue an order to close the meeting of the District Commission on the second day of the referendum;

(e) ensure that the results of the votes are taken over for all the territorial districts concerned within a specified time limit.

§ 14

Regional Office

The Regional Office provides organizational and technical preparation, conduct and conduct referendums in the region, deals with complaints about organisational technical security of referendums at the level of the municipality, checks the course of voting and census and cooperates with the Czech Statistical Office to ensure the necessary technical facilities and workforces for the workplaces created by the entrusted municipal authorities.

§ 15

Authorised municipal office

The mandated municipal office provides rooms and the necessary resources for the work of the Czech Statistical Office in taking over, checking and processing the minutes taken from the district commissions, cooperating with the Czech Statistical Office to ensure the necessary manpower and technical equipment for transferring results from individual districts to the processing system at this workplace and checking the voting process and counting by the district commission.

§ 16

Municipal Office

The Municipal Office shall provide referendums, necessary manpower and auxiliary resources, maintain a special list in accordance with Section 5 (2), issue voting cards, deal with complaints about organisational technical security of the referendum at the level of the district and archive the documentation for the referendum.

§ 17

Mayor

(a) provide information to eligible citizens on the time and place of the referendum in the municipality;

(b) provide information to eligible citizens on places where they can learn about the text of the Treaty of Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union;

(c) establish, taking into account the number of eligible citizens in the district within 40 days of the referendum date, a minimum number of members of the District Commission, in such a way that the District Commission is at least five, except for districts of up to 300 eligible citizens where the District Commission may be four,

d) convene the first meeting of the District Commission to take place at the latest 21 days before the referendum date;

(e) appoint and dismiss the registrar of the District Commission (hereinafter referred to as the registrar);

(f) carry out other tasks provided for by this law.

§ 18

Representative Office

(a) inform, in due time, the eligible citizens living in the territorial district of that office of the duration of the referendum and of the conditions for exercising their right to vote;

(b) issue voting cards for eligible citizens residing abroad, registered in a separate list kept by the representative office.

§ 19

District Commission

(a) ensure order in the referendum voting room;

(b) ensure the exercise of the right to vote in a referendum and oversees the voting process;

(c) add the votes cast and make a record of the course and result of the vote;

(d) transmit the documents relating to the referendum to the custody of the municipal office, with the exception of one copy of the record of the course and the result of the vote which it will transmit to the Czech Statistical Office (§ 33).

§ 20

Members of the District Commission

(1) A national citizen of the Czech Republic may be a member of the District Commission, who reached the age of at least 18 years on the day of the composition of the promise and who has not been prevented from exercising the right to vote in a referendum.

(2) Political parties or political movements in the Chamber of Deputies or in the Senate Senators' Club, and the Election Party, 15) which have obtained at least one mandate in the last election in the council of the municipality, are entitled to delegate one member and one alternate to the District Commission. If the lowest number of members of the District Commission is not so achieved, the Mayor shall appoint members for vacant posts before its first meeting. If the number of members of the District Commission falls below the fixed number during the referendum and there are no alternates according to the first sentence, the Mayor shall appoint additional members to vacant posts.

(3) The delegation of members and alternates referred to in paragraph 2 shall mean the delivery of their list to the Mayor no later than 30 days before the date of the referendum. The list shall include the name and, where applicable, the name and surname, the date of birth, the place where the proposed person is registered for permanent residence, the signature of the person authorised to act on behalf of a political party or political movement, and, where appropriate, the signature of an agent who will provide evidence of a written mandate for delegation. If the election party is an association of independent candidates or an association of political parties or political movements and independent candidates, the lists shall be signed by an agent under the same conditions. The representative of the municipality elected as an independent candidate shall sign the list himself. In addition, the list may include an indication to which subcommittees the delegates and alternates are to be included, otherwise the mayor shall decide on the inclusion of the member or alternate.

(4) Membership of the District Commission is created by making a promise to the following text: "I promise on my honour that I will faithfully and impartially perform my duties as a member of the District Commission and will follow the Constitution, the laws and other legislation of the Czech Republic." The promise shall be made by a delegated or appointed person by signing it under the written text of the promise; it also takes up its functions.

(5) Membership of the District Commission ceases to exist

(a) the date of termination of the activities of the District Commission;

(b) death;

(c) the moment when the Chairman of the District Commission receives a written declaration of resignation from a member of the District Commission; the written declaration cannot be withdrawn,

(d) the moment when the chairman of the District Commission receives the written appeal of the member of the District Commission by the delegate;

(e) the loss of citizenship of the Czech Republic; or

(f) by order of the District Commission; The District Commission shall decide on the termination of membership in the event that a member of the District Commission does not perform his duties on the voting days in such a way that his absence in the voting room lasts for more than 3 hours without the approval of the District Commission.

(6) The clerk is a member of the District Commission with an advisory vote, the number of members of the District Commission is not included in the vote. The Registry may submit proposals to the District Commission; make minutes of the meetings of the Commission. The clerk shall make a promise in the form and manner referred to in paragraph 4. He shall be appointed mayor no later than 20 days before the first meeting of the District Commission. If the recorder ceases to perform his duties, a new recorder must be appointed without delay.

(7) A member of the District Commission whose membership has expired under paragraph 5 shall be called by the Chairman of the District Commission through the Mayor of an alternate delegated under paragraph 2 by the same body; the alternate shall become a member of the District Commission by the composition of the promise referred to in paragraph 4. If the facts referred to in paragraph 5 are not substitutes, the President of the District Commission shall draw the attention of the Mayor, who shall appoint a new member of the District Commission for the vacant post.

(8) The District Commission is able to make a resolution if an absolute majority of its members are present with the right to vote. The resolution is adopted if the majority of the members present have spoken for them.

(9) The District Commission shall, at its first meeting, appoint a lot of its members with the right to vote for the President and Vice-President. Lossing is run by a reporter. If the chairman or vice-chairman of the District Commission resigns or is unable to perform his duties for other serious reasons, the draw shall be re-drawn; The President of the District Commission and Vice-President of the District Commission shall not be included in the draw for the President of the District Commission; The Vice-President of the District Commission will not be included in the draw for the Vice-President of the District Commission and the Chairman of the District Commission.

(10) The Chairman of the District Commission may entrust the other members of the District Commission to each operation.

§ 21

Informing eligible citizens

(1) The Mayor shall publish in the usual place, no later than 15 days before the day of the referendum, the announcement of the time and place of the referendum in the municipality. If more than one district has been established in the territory of the municipality, it shall indicate in the notification which part of the municipality belongs to each district and shall publish the relevant part of the notification in each of them. At the same time, the mayor will indicate in the announcement of the address of the voting rooms in the referendum and information on the places where authorised citizens can learn about the text of the Treaty of Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union.

(2) In the notification, the Mayor will draw the citizens entitled to the obligation to prove the identity and citizenship of the Czech Republic before the vote is taken and will provide the additional information necessary for the uninterrupted conduct of the referendum.

(3) The representative office shall inform, in due time, the citizens living in the territorial district of that office of the time of the referendum and the conditions for exercising their right to vote in a normal manner.

(4) In a municipality in which, according to the last census, at least 10% of citizens reporting for nationality other than Czech and in which a committee on national minorities is set up under a special legislation, 16), the notification referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be published in the language of the relevant national minority.

§ 22

Voting room

(1) A voting box, a portable voting box, a sufficient number of ballots, empty envelopes bearing a lengthwise stamp of the municipal office (hereinafter referred to as the "official envelope '), typewriters and extracts from the permanent list and the special list shall be available for each district. Furthermore, a constitutional law and this law must be available in the voting room, which must be lent for consultation at the request of authorised citizens.

(2) Special spaces shall be designated in the voting room in order to ensure the secrecy of the vote. The number of such premises shall be determined by the mayor taking into account the number of eligible citizens in the district.

(3) In the object in which the voting room is located, a state flag shall be displayed, a large state emblem shall be placed in the voting room in a dignified place (17), and a ballot marked "pattern 'shall be displayed in a visible place.

(4) Official envelopes shall be opaque, of the same size, of paper of the same quality and colour.

§ 23

Opening of votes

(1) Before starting the vote, the Chairman of the District Commission shall check whether the voting room is equipped in accordance with § 22 and whether the voting box and the portable voting box are empty; then seal those ballot boxes in front of the other members of the District Commission.

(2) After carrying out the check referred to in paragraph 1, the chairman of the District Commission shall declare the vote open.

§ 24

Voting principles

(1) The authorised citizen shall vote in person; representation shall not be admissible.

(2) Authorised citizens appear before the district committee and vote in the order in which they arrived in the voting room.

(3) Upon arriving in the voting room, an authorised citizen will prove his identity and citizenship of the Czech republity18) valid civil document 19) or valid passport, diplomatic or service passport of the Czech Republic or passport. 20) After the entry in the extract from the permanent list or special list has been made, the authorised citizen shall receive a ballot from the District Commission and an empty official envelope. At the request of an authorised citizen, the District Commission shall issue a new ballot if necessary.

(4) If a citizen does not prove his identity and citizenship of the Czech Republic, he will not be allowed to vote.

(5) An authorised citizen who is not included in the extract from the permanent list and who demonstrates his right to vote in the precinct will be added to the extract from the permanent list and will be allowed to vote. An authorised citizen who has arrived in the voting room with a voting card shall be obliged to submit this card to the District Commission; it shall accompany it to the extract from the separate list.

(6) No person may be present in the voting room at the same time as the eligible citizen, even a member of the district committee. An authorised citizen who is unable to modify the ballot for a physical defect himself or who cannot read or write for other reasons may be present in the voting space designated for the modification of the ballot, but not a member of the district committee, and may modify the ballot for it and place it in the official envelope.

(7) The authorised citizen may, for serious, particularly health reasons, ask the municipal authority and, on the days of the referendum, the district commission to vote outside the voting room in the district district for which the district commission was set up. In such a case, the District Commission shall send two members with a portable ballot box, an official envelope and a ballot card to a citizen authorised. When voting, the members of the District Commission shall proceed in such a way as to preserve the secrecy of the vote.

§ 25

Voting procedure

(1) Upon receipt of the official envelope and the ballot, the authorised citizen shall enter the space designated for adjusting the ballots where the ballots shall be adjusted in the prescribed manner and placed in the official envelope.

(2) The answer to the question shall be marked by a qualified citizen on the ballot by marking it with a cross in the relevant box.

(3) The authorised citizen shall vote by inserting an official ballot envelope in the ballot box in front of the District Commission after leaving the voting room for the adjustment of ballots. Another citizen, but not a member of the District Commission, may do so for an authorised citizen who is unable to insert an official envelope with a ballot box.

(4) An authorised citizen who has not gone to the voting room shall not be allowed to vote.

§ 26

Order in the voting room and in its immediate vicinity

The President of the District Commission shall be responsible for order in the voting room and in its immediate vicinity. His instructions on maintaining order and dignified voting are binding on all those present.

§ 27

Absence of vote

Date of Promulgation	25.04.2003
Effective from	25.04.2003
Effective until	-
Status	Valid

Act No. 114 / 2003 Coll.

Act on the implementation of a referendum on the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union and amending certain laws (Act on the implementation of a referendum)

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