RPT-Czech president sees election likely in late May

                                
 (Repeats story published late on Monday)
                                
 LANY, Czech Republic, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Czech President
Vaclav Klaus said on Monday this year's election will be held as
close as possible to the end of the parliamentary term, making
the last weekend in May the most likely date.
                                
 The EU member country is run by an interim government and
politicians hope the vote will usher in a cabinet with a mandate
to tackle the economic downturn and growing state debt.
                                
 Klaus said he did not want to bring the election forward,
preferring to stick as close as possible to the traditional
mid-year date.
                                
 "We have no reason to push forward the election term ...
therefore we assume that the election should take place at the
farthest possible date," he said after meeting Prime Minister
Jan Fischer for a traditional New Year lunch at the presidential
residence in Lany, outside Prague.
                                
 The president is responsible for setting the election date
and must choose a Friday and Saturday within the month preceding
the end of parliament's regular term, in this case June 3.
                                
 This makes May 28 and 29 the likely dates for the two-day
ballot and means the new government, which may take weeks or
months to form, will have less time to prepare the 2011 budget
than if voting were held a few weeks earlier.
                                
 The vote could end a political crisis which started with the
collapse of a minority centre-right government in March, during
the country's EU presidency in the first half of the year.
                                
 Attempts to hold an early election were blocked by a court
decision and a lack of consensus among political parties,
keeping Fischer in office and delaying policy decisions on tax
and spending reforms needed to cut the deficit.
                                
 The main parties, the left-wing Social Democrats, who want
to increase taxes for the rich and raise welfare spending, and
the right-wing Civic Democrats, who want to cut social spending,
are running neck and neck in opinion polls.
                                
 Neither party is expected to win enough votes for a majority
in parliament and will have to join forces with other parties,
or possibly with its main rival, to create a government.
                                
 The new government will face the task of reforming public
finances, weighed down by high spending commitments such as
pensions and unemployment benefits. At times the public sector
gap -- the difference between income and expenditure -- is close
to 7 percent of gross domestic product. [ID:nPRA004905]
[ID:nPRG003859]
                                
 The new cabinet is expected to take steps to prepare the
country for adoption of the euro but the move is unlikely before
the next election in 2014.
 (Reporting by Jana Mlcochova; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)