LONDON: The Czech republic stepped into an new era on Wednesday when parliament started the process of electing a head of state to replace President Vaclav Havel.

Mr Havel is the only leader from the anti-communist revolutions of 1989 still in office. At the beginning of February he will complete 13 years as head of state, first of Czechoslovakia and then of the Czech Republic. The president’s role is largely ceremonial with limited powers.

The rightwing former prime minister, Vaclav Klaus, is the best known of the lacklustre field of four candidates vying to replace Mr Havel. But Mr Klaus has made so many enemies that it is unlikely he will win.

The winner needs simple majorities in both houses of parliament which will meet in a baroque hall at Prague castle on Wednesday to cast their first-round votes.

None of the four are expected to score a quick victory, forcing a run-off between the two strongest candidates — Mr Klaus and the Christian Democrat Speaker of the Senate, Petr Pithart. The winner needs 101 of the 200 votes in the lower house and, separately, 41 of the 81 votes in the Senate to win.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service