The two-day parliamentary election in the Czech Republic ended on Saturday.
The opposition alliances surprise.
Exciting head-to-head race for first place.
Update from October 9, 8:09 p.m.:
According to the preliminary result, the populist ANO party of Prime Minister Andrej Babis just lost the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic.
As the electoral commission announced after counting more than 99.9 percent of the ballot papers on Saturday evening, the conservative opposition alliance together got 27.78 percent of the vote, while Babis' ANO received 27.14 percent.
In the meantime, the ANO had been ahead, after counting the polling stations in the big cities, the alliance finally overtook the ruling party.
Parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic: exciting head-to-head race
Update from October 9, 6.45 p.m.:
In the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, two opposition alliances surprisingly achieved a majority. On Saturday, after counting almost 99 percent of the votes cast, they came together to 108 of the 200 seats in the House of Representatives. According to the interim results, the conservative electoral alliance Spolu (Together) has 27.6 percent of the vote, the alliance of the pirate and mayor parties 15.5 percent. "The change is here, we are the change," said Spolu top candidate Petr Fiala.
The ANO of Prime Minister Andrej Babis is in an exciting head-to-head race with Spolu for first place until the end, but according to the latest figures it is only 27.3 percent.
Babis had been overtaken by a financial affair in the last few feet of the election campaign.
According to research by an international network of journalists, he is said to have bought real estate in France through foreign letterbox companies in 2009v
(see initial
report
).
Election in the Czech Republic: Opposition surprisingly wins majority
A stalemate looms after the election. President Milos Zeman has stressed several times in the past that he would not give government mandate to an electoral alliance but to the strongest individual party. In any case, that would be the populist ANO von Babis, since Spolu consists of the three parties ODS, TOP09 and KDU-CSL. The 77-year-old Zeman makes no secret of his support for Babis.
Update from October 9, 5:02 p.m.:
In the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, the populist party ANO received the most votes from Prime Minister Andrej Babis, but missed a parliamentary majority.
As the electoral commission announced on Saturday after counting around 80 percent of the ballot papers, the ANO received 28.40 percent of the votes and thus 75 seats in the 200-member parliament.
The communists therefore missed the entry into parliament.
Parliamentary election in the Czech Republic: Babis in front
Update from October 9, 4.15 p.m.:
In the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, the populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis is now ahead after an interim result.
More than two fifths of the constituencies have already been counted.
According to these counts, the ANO party of the multibillionaire Babis has just under 30 percent of the votes cast.
Based on these counts, she would become the strongest force again.
Current counts: Babis is ahead
In second place follows the interim results of the conservative opposition alliance Spolu (Together) with around 24 percent, in third the alliance of the pirate and mayor parties with almost 14 percent. These numbers can, however, shift in the course of the count. These are not extrapolations. The communists, who had previously tolerated the government, threatened to fail at the five percent threshold. There were signs of a higher turnout than in the last election four years ago.
First report from October 9th, 3:30 p.m .:
Prague - Czech Republic * has elected a new House of Representatives.
The two-day parliamentary election for the House of Representatives began on Friday (October 8) at 2 p.m. and ended on Saturday (October 9) at 2 p.m.
More than eight million eligible voters were allowed to cast their votes in the two-day election.
The result is expected for Saturday evening.
On the first day of the election, there was a good turnout.
In Prague, queues formed at times in front of the polling stations, and Czechs also voted in embassies and consulates general abroad.
Head of government Babis scandal: "Pandora Papers" revelations
The last polls before the election predicted a victory for the populist head of government and multi-billionaire Andrej Babis. At the moment, however, it remains to be seen whether the revelations in connection with the “Pandora Papers” * will have any impact on the election result. Research by a journalist network has shown that Babis is said to have bought a country castle in France for 15 million euros through mailbox companies in 2009. Babis has so far firmly rejected the allegations of money laundering and tax evasion.
Observers assume, however, that the revelations will have little impact on voting behavior.
The sociologist Jan Herzmann suspects that the voters are convinced of Babsi's innocence and that Babis, with his populist ANO movement, will once again become the strongest force.
Prime Minister Babis has been suspected for years * of having illegally pocketed millions in EU subsidies with his company Agrofert.
The Czech public prosecutor's office is investigating this matter.
The EU also accuses him of a conflict of interest because his company benefits from EU aid and its policies in general.
However, these allegations have so far done little harm to Babis.
Parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic: two party alliances against Babis
Babis presented himself as a guarantee of stability at the start of the election on Friday. When he cast his vote in Lovosice, he said: “We shouldn't change the government now.” Before the election, two party alliances were explicitly formed against Babis: a left-wing liberal one led by the Pirate Party and a conservative Christian one made up of three parties. According to surveys, the right-wing extremist SPD will certainly move into parliament. On the other hand, it could be tight for the Social Democrats, with whom Babis has so far formed a minority government. The Communist Party could also fail for the first time at the five percent hurdle.
A total of 200 seats will be filled after the election in the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives is the more important of the two chambers of parliament.
After the election, the President gives Milos Zeman the mandate to form a government.
However, his state of health is currently unclear, which in turn overshadowed the choice.
The 77-year-old was most recently forced to cancel all public appointments.
In the last parliamentary election four years ago, the turnout was 61 percent.
In the Czech Republic, voting is traditionally held on two days because many people go to the countryside at the weekend.
Unlike in Germany, there is no postal voting option.
(dpa / afp / at)
*
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