Czech rebel MP to vote with SocDems--party leader

PRAGUE, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Czech Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek said on Friday that a rebel parliamentarian who left the party this week had pledged to vote with it on key issues.

Michal Pohanka quit the party under pressure from parliamentary party chief Michal Hasek, who urged him to resign after a television report linked him with people charged with fraud. Pohanka has called the report an unfounded attack.

A deputy's defection is very important in the lower house of parliament, where leftist and centre-right camps have held 100 seats each since elections in June.

Paroubek, who on Thursday urged Pohanka to resign -- which would give the party the right to appoint another member to the seat -- met him on Friday and called the affair a misunderstanding.

"Pohanka will be an independent who works together with the Social Democrats," he said. "We agreed that there isn't a great difference on programme issues and a majority of the time Michal Pohanka will vote the same as members of the Social Democrats."

Pohanka did not speak to reporters after the meeting, and has been in hiding since announcing on Wednesday that he was leaving the party.

In an interview in Friday's daily Mlada Fronta Dnes, he said he had come under enormous pressure from the party to step down, but he would not do so as he had done nothing wrong and saw no need to take such drastic action.

"You know how it is (within the Social Democrats). They are trying whatever they can to discredit me, so I will leave the Social Democrats, and if possible the entire political sphere," the paper quoted him as saying. He did not tell the paper how he would vote in parliament on different issues.

The right-wing Civic Democrat government, which lost a confidence vote earlier this month, has said it will not try to enlist Pohanka and still wants early elections next year.

The Social Democrats oppose early polls. They have in the past demanded time to find 101 votes in the lower house to form a cabinet. They have also proposed a grand coalition but have been rebuffed by the Civic Democrats.

President Vaclav Klaus is expected to announce a candidate for prime minister in the next few days. He may try to appoint a technocrat prime minister and government for a limited period before an early election. ((Reporting by Alan Crosby, editing by Tim Pearce; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: alan.crosby.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420 224 190 477))

Keywords: CZECH POLITICS