Presidential primaries for the Czech Social Democratic Party were held between 22 October and 25 November 2002 in order to choose the party's candidate for the 2003 presidential election. Miloà ¡ Zeman received the highest number of votes. Other candidates were Jaroslav Bureà ¡, Otakar Motejl and Otakar Potà ¯ÃÂek. Jakub S. Trojan was originally a 5th candidate.
Leader of ÃÂSSD VladimÃÂr à  pidla said after 2002 legislative election that party will have its own candidate. It led to speculations that such candidate could be Miloà ¡ Zeman who retired from politics at the time. Some prominent members of the party expressed their support for Zeman. Zeman's candidature wasn't supported universally. Some politicians such as LubomÃÂr Zaorálek didn't like the possibility and wanted Otakar Motejl as party's candidate. Zeman's supporters included ZdenÃÂk à  kromach. à  pidla's co-worker SouÃÂková mentioned that there is 3rd secret candidate. Debate about possible candidates led to speculations that party could hold a primary election to decide.
On 9 September 2002, Minister of Justice Jaroslav Bureà ¡ announced his candidature. He was offered the candidature by Stanislav Gross. Bureà ¡ was the first candidate to officially run. ÃÂSSD announced decision to hold a primary on 26 September. Zeman announced his candidature on 30 September 2002. On 1 October 2002 the candidates were Miloà ¡ Zeman, Jaroslav Bureà ¡, Otakar Motejl and Rudolf ZahradnÃÂk. Martin Potà ¯ÃÂek joined the primaries on 20 October. Zeman Bureà ¡ and Motejl were considered the main candidates. ZahradnÃÂk later withdrawn from primaries.
Primaries started on 22 October 2002. Otakar Motejl was considered the front-runner. He was leading according to the poll by STEM. Voting ended on 25 November. It was reported at the time that Zeman was leading the poll.
Miloà ¡ Zeman received the highest number of votes and won the primaries. However, the results of the vote were not binding and some politicians wanted to nominate Otakar Motejl who came third. Zeman agreed that he will not participate in the first round of voting in the presidential election, with the party selecting Jaroslav Bureà ¡ instead. It was planned that Zeman would become the party's candidate in the second round of voting, taking over from Bureà ¡. However, Bureà ¡ was surprisingly eliminated in the first round.
Primaries were criticised for weak preparations. It was reported on 23 October that voters were able to participate repeatedly and there were falsified votes. Another point of controversy was turnout. ÃÂSSD expected that masses of people would participate but the turnout was much lower.