Czechs expected to vote for EU accession

CZECH REPUBLIC: Czech voters are expected to follow their Polish neighbours and vote in favour of EU accession in a two-day referendum that gets underway this morning.

Around 57 per cent of voters are expected to turn out today and tomorrow, with opinion polls suggesting that 76 per cent of voters will back accession.

Mr Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president who retired earlier this year, has urged voters to vote for EU accession to combat growing official corruption. "Incredible economic fraud and political cover-up have spread in this country. Saying Yes to the EU is saying No to such fraud," said Mr Havel in Prague on Wednesday.

Mr Vaclav Klaus, the Czech President and a past critic of the EU, has said it would be inappropriate for him to tell people how to vote. In a newspaper interview he expressed regret that 14 years after the end of communism, the Czech people could not "enjoy our independence" but accepted that developments in the EU would not wait for "our small country".

An anti-EU group calling itself Ceska pravice (The Czech Right) published a book of essays this week, No No No, presenting arguments against EU accession.