Czech Republic - 2020 Senate & Local Election
Starting on October 2, Czech voters went to the polls to vote for one-third of the Senate and members of regional councils. Their largest concern is their safe participation on Election Day and the government’s overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The senate elections may result in a shakeup – either from the governing party receiving a majority of seats or the opposition coalition increasing its majority.
The Czech Republic is a democratic republic. The president is elected by the members of the parliament (both cameras) for a five year period and may serve for maximum two terms. The president has limited powers, among them the right to veto legislation, appoint constitutional court judges, appoint the prime minister and to dissolve the parliament (under specific conditions). The prime minister serves as head of government.
Thousands of Czechs quarantining at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic were allowed to vote at drive-in polling stations on Wednesday in a regional and upper house election which came amid a surge in infections in the country. A total of 80 specially-adapted centers had been set up across the country.
The weekend regional election could be an early gauge of support for Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s handling of the second wave of the virus. Support for his party in opinion polls has ticked lower amid criticism over his perceived reluctance to bring back tough measures and other policy inconsistencies hurting public trust.
While the election for regional governments and a third of seats in parliament’s upper house Senate was likely to draw only weak turnout, it could begin to signal some new alliances forming before a parliamentary election in 2021. In a September poll from STEM agency, support for Babis’s ANO party fell to 28.4%, from 33.7% in May. The opposition Pirates, in second position, were steady at 12.8% and the opposition centre-right Civic Democrats (ODS) had 10.6%.
The Pirates are also the first parliamentary party in Czech history to run a Romani candidate as leader of their list in the regional elections, which means he is their candidate for Governor, Karel Karika in the Ústecký Region. Two Romani people are also running for the "Freedom and Direct Democracy" movement led by Tomio Okamura, a politician infamous for making antigypsyist, xenophobic remarks who is also regularly mentioned in the Czech authorities' regular reports on extremism.
The national-level political map of the Czech Republic has long lacked any distinct representation of Romani people - for 20 years there have been no Roma elected to Parliament. One of the last Romani members of the Chamber of Deputies was Monika Horáková (today Monika Mihalicková) at the turn of the millenium, who was elected on the now-defunct Freedom Union's candidate list. At the local level, however, the situation has been better in terms of Romani representation since 2018. Municipal assemblies all over the country had a total of 13 Romani-identified members after that election.
Suspicions had arisen once again in northern Bohemia that the regional elections there would involve vote-buying, and as is traditional, the allegations concern excluded localities such as the Janov housing estate in Litvínov or the Krásné Brezno and Neštemice quarters of Ústí nad Labem. The offering price for casting a ballot for a particular candidate had reportedly gone up; whereas in the past a couple of hundred crowns would do, today the ballot traffickers are offering CZK 1 000 [EUR 37].
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