Czech opposition wins clear regional election and leads Senate election

PRAGUE — The main opposition party dominated Czech regional elections, leading in the first round of voting for the upper house of parliament, according to results released Saturday.

After almost all votes were counted, the ANO (JA) movement led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis won ten of the 13 regions that were at stake in the election on Friday and Saturday, the Czech Statistical Office said.

The result reflects stable support for ANO, which also won ten regions in 2020 and nine in 2016, and a boost for Babis ahead of next year's parliamentary elections.

ANO also has the most candidates moving into the runoff for 27 seats in the 81-seat Senate. The top two finishers in each district will face each other in a head-to-head election next weekend.

After the votes from 99% of polling stations had been counted, 19 ANO candidates made it to the runoff election.

The Czech Statistical Office said five candidates had reached the 50 percent threshold for an outright seat win, leaving 22 seats to be decided in next week's runoff between the top two finishers in each race.

The clear winners included two ANO candidates, a Christian Democrat candidate, a member of the ruling five-party coalition, an independent coalition representative and an opposition Social Democrat.

Currently, the government MPs have a clear majority in the Senate.

The lower house of parliament is more powerful, but the Senate plays an important role in passing constitutional amendments and confirming constitutional judges.

The elections took place in the wake of massive floods that have hit Central Europe in recent days, claiming at least 24 lives, five of them in the Czech Republic.