Czechs vote `yes' in referendum for membership of EU

Czechs voted overwhelmingly for their formerly communist nation to join the EU, according to the first results from a two-day referendum which ended yesterday.

A total of 76.2 percent of Czechs voted for EU membership, according to official results from some 40 percent of ballots counted, while exit polls broadcast on state television put the "yes" vote at 81 percent.

Czech greeted the results, a much higher "yes" percentage than had been predicted before the Friday to yesterday's referendum, as a historic final chapter in formerly communist eastern Europe's return to life alongside western Europe.

"For me, World War II and the division of Europe has ended [with this vote]. We have achieved our goal. I consider the result good and fair," Social Democrat Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla said.

Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said: "Czechs have proved that they are interested in the fate of the Republic."

He said he was "very happy that after 10 years Czechs and Slovaks will live again in a common structure without borders," referring to Slovakia which has also approved EU membership.

The referendum in the Czech Republic was the first in the central European nation that was created when former Soviet bloc state Czechoslavkia split apart into the republic and Slovakia in 1993, four years after the so-called Velvet Revolution ended communist rule.

The participation rate from the some eight million Czech voters was at 57 percent, according to exit poll figures from the SCetC agency given on state-run Czech Television (CT), well over the 50 percent rate analysts had said was needed to give the referendum political credibility.

However no minimum rate was needed to make the vote valid.

The Czech statistics office said the participation rate was 54.5 percent, based on results from 38.3 percent of the Czech Republic's 14,765 voting sites.

Spidla's center-left government had campaigned heavily for a high turnout.

The government has organized fireworks and a concert for a pro-EU celebration later yesterday.

The Czech ballot all but completes the EU ratifications for the 10 states slated to join when the EU expands east and south in May next year from 15 to a 25 nations.

So far six countries have voted to become EU members -- Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The only ones left to vote are Estonia and Latvia, in September. Cyprus will not hold a referendum.

The exit poll estimates were based on 19,000 people queried at 370 voting stations.

Jana Hamanova, a director of the SC and C agency that carried out the poll, said the "yes" majority could end up lower since a third of the people queried did not give answers as they left the voting areas but that the majority would still be 75 percent even if all of these had voted "no."