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The following is issued by the Legislative Council
The delegation of the Legislative Council began its visit in Prague of the Czech Republic on September 14.
On September 14, the delegation met with Ing. Miloslav Vlcek, Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of the Czech Republic. The delegation also had meeting with experts of the Parliament Institute, and toured the Building of the Chamber of Deputies.
Mr Vlcek briefed the delegation on the constitutional crisis currently faced by the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court struck down on September 10 a presidential decree that allowed for early parliamentary elections to be held on October 9 to 10. Following the court's verdict, the Chamber of Deputies agreed on a draft amendment to the constitution that would enable the President to dissolve the lower house today (September 15). However, whether the dissolution can take place as scheduled is still not certain as it would depend on whether any Member of Parliament would again challenge the decision at the Constitutional Court.
The delegation visited the Czech Parliament at this important moment and obtained first-hand information on the disagreement between the Parliament and the Constitutional Court and witnessed how the Czech people dealt with the constitutional crisis.
The delegation was grateful to Mr Vlcek for sparing the time to meet with them since he was busy dealing with the situation. In fact, the meeting with Mr Vlcek had been extended for 30 minutes to allow ample time for answering the delegation's questions.
Ends/Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:05
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