Cyril Koky: I want to serve in the Czech Senate
The Pirates have presented the lead candidates for their lists in the Regional and Senate elections this fall. Two Romani candidates are among them.
Cyril Koky, who is currently the expert official in charge of the area of national minorities for the Central Bohemian Regional Authority, is running for the Senate, while Karel Karika, the head of the St. Materna House, run by Caritas in Ústí nad Labem, who has also served as vice-mayor there, is the lead candidate for the party in the Ústecký Region. The priorities of the lead candidates for the party in the regional elections are a transparent economy, the transparent publication of information, digitalization, improved accessibility of health care and social services, protection of the landscape against drought, a functioning infrastructure for transportation, and accessible, modern education.
The Pirates are sending 13 candidates to the fall Senate elections. They also want to seat at least the number of senators required to form their own club in the upper house.
Pirate Party chair Ivan Bartoš informed the press of those aims when introducing the candidates last week. The membership base of the Pirates elected Koky unanimously through the party’s Internet forum.
Koky will run in the Kolín precinct. “I am offering my experience, I have worked in the state administration for 20 years. I worked for five and a half years at the District Authority, and at the Regional Authority for almost 17 years. Thanks to that, I have a lot of experience in negotiating with people, with local authorities, with mayors of municipalities and of cities. All that I have learned from these different areas – crime prevention, grant programs, all the projects that I’ve assessed – I want to draw on all of that in order to serve in the Senate,” Koky told ROMEA TV.
Since 2003, Koky has worked as the expert official in charge of the area of national minorities for the Central Bohemian Regional Authority. His job descripton is above all the issue of integrating members of the Romani minority, a community of which he is also a member.
Koky has also been a member of advisory bodies at both the Government and Regional Authority level. Other candidates running for Senate in that precinct are Pavel Kárník (Mayors and Independents -STAN), Tomáš Klinecký (TOP 09), Ivanka Kohoutová (Tricolor – Trikolóra) and Martin Škorpík (Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia – KSČM).
Senators hold office for six years and every two years one-third of the seats are up for election (27 of 81 seats). The first round of Senate elections will be held on 2 and 3 October, and if a runoff is required, it will be held on 9 and 10 October.
