Czech Republic

The Czech government is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy.

President, Vaclav Klaus, is the head of state. This position holds limited powers, most importantly to return bills to the parliament, nominate Constitutional court judges for the Senate's approval and dissolve the parliament under certain special and unusual circumstances. He also appoints the prime minister.
The Prime Minister is Petr Necas, head of government. The Prime Minister holds considerable powers, including the right to set the agenda for most foreign and domestic policy, mobilize the parliamentary majority and choose government ministers.

Parliament consists of two chambers:
the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecka snemovna; 200 members) - Members are elected for a four year term by proportional representation, with a 5% election threshold.
Senate (Senat; 81 members) - Members are elected in single-seat constituencies by two-round runoff voting for a six-year term. The Senate is unpopular among the public and often suffers from low election turnout.

Parties include:

• Civic Democratic Party,
• Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD - left-of-center),
• TOP 09 and Public Affairs (Veci verejne).

Prague

Prague is the seat of power in the Czech republic as the site of government, parliament and the president. The city is governed separately by the local Government of the Municipal City of Prague. This is headed by a council and mayor Pavel Bem. Re-elected in 2006, he is also Deputy Leader of the ODS.

The city has a website that addresses concerns of citizens and visitors: http://www.praha.eu/jnp/cz/home/index.html