The Czech Republic is a parliamentary and multi-party democracy. Legislative power is held by the
Parliament, a bilateral body composed of the Senate, also called the upper house and the Chamber of
Deputies, or also called the lower house. The election of the Chamber of Deputies which will take place on
8 and 9 October is significant because from this the government is formed which, unlike the Senate, has
wider powers. Compared to previous years, the elections in the Czech Republic started earlier this year.
Most of the voters will go to the polls on Friday 8 October from 2 to 10 pm and Saturday 9 October from 8
to 2 pm. Ten and a half million citizens are preparing to go to the polls for a parliamentary election that will
be marked by the consequences of the pandemic. Czech voters have the option of four preferential votes
within a party’s candidate list. The Czech Republic is divided into 14 constituencies, which correspond to
the regions and the capital Prague. Czech legislation does not provide for forms of remote or postal voting.
Foreign voters do not have their own constituency but their votes are merged with one of the regions
chosen by drawing lots. This year they will be counted in the Ústí nad Labem region.
In elections, parties must get at least 5 percent of the overall votes to get a seat in the Chamber of
Deputies, if no party has more than 50 percent of the vote, the president usually asks the leader of the
party with the most votes to enter into negotiations with other parties to form a coalition government with
a parliamentary majority. According to most polls, the party hovering around the five percent threshold to
enter the Chamber of Deputies is that of the Social Democrats. While, polls point out that the Czech
Communist Party risks exclusion in the elections in the Czech Republic on 8 and 9 October due to lack of
consensus, from the parliament of the Central European Republic, the first time in the last seventy-five
years, given that the party was a major player in the Cold War. These elections will bring an important vote
that comes four years after the previous one, held in 2017, and 32 years after the so-called "Velvet
Revolution", or the political process that, between November and December 1989, led to the dissolution of
the Communist state Czechoslovakian.
Polls show that the ANO party that still supports Czech membership of the EU is firmly in the lead. It is led
by current Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the fifth richest person in the Czech Republic, a controversial leader
due to alleged conflicts of interest and the subject of an ongoing police investigation into alleged EU
subsidy fraud. The party tends to focus on reducing the cost of living and promoting individual economic
well-being through tax cuts, family subsidies, and pension reforms.
This is followed by the SPOLU coalitions made up of three distinct groups, united in their dislike of the
current government led by Andrej Babiš and Pirates + STAN which are socially liberal, and strongly anti-
corruption, who fight for a modernization of the Czech Republic, believing that a greater application of
modern technologies will lead to a better quality of life.
The SPD party is an anti-immigrant, anti-EU and isolationist political party led by Tomio Okamura, it is one
of the most controversial political forces in the Czech Republic, but polls show that it enjoys steadily
increasing support.
The ANO parties, communist and SPD, adopt a traditionalist and anti-globalist position. On the contrary, the
Pirates and the SPOLU coalition advocate closer integration into Western institutions such as the EU and
NATO, and take a more favorable stance for multiculturalism in the Czech Republic.
Source: expats.cz; camic.cz; ansa.it;
