Czech Republic election: PM's ANO Party wins 10 of 13 regional ballot amid pandemic

Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s party won the regional assembly elections that concluded on October 3, capturing over 22 per cent of the vote overall and placing first in 10 of 13 contests. According to AP, the Czech Statistics Office said that with ballots from almost 100 per cent of polling stations counted, the ANO (YES) movement led by the PM won ten regions contested during Friday and Saturday. While taking to Twitter, Babiš called the result, which was a sign of stable support for ANO, ‘excellent’. 

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The result was a signal of confidence in the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, despite a recent uptick. According to reports, in the regional contests, the opposition Pirate party placed second overall, with around 12 per cent of the vote. The centre-left Social Democrats, which is ANO’s junior government coalition partner, garnered less than five per cent of the vote, as did the unreformed Communist party, which have ‘tolerated’ Babiš’s government in exchange for policy concessions. 

According to Czech Radio, as of last week, ANO appeared to have won the Moravian-Silesian, South Moravian, Olomouc, Pardubice, Vysočina, Ústí nad Labem, Karlovy Vary and Plzeň regions for certain. A coalition called the Mayors of the Liberec Region won that region, while in the Hradec Králové Region, a coalition of ODS, STAN and Východočeši emerged the winners. The official regional assembly result will be published on October 6 in the Collection of Laws. 

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First election amid pandemic 

PM Babiš’s party, ANO, has the most candidates advancing to the runoffs for 27 seats in the 81 seat Senate. The top two finishers in each district will be facing each other in a head-to-head vote next weekend. ANO has nine candidates advancing to the runoffs. The recent elections were the first held in the Czech Republic during the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. 

On Friday and Saturday, voters were required to wear face masks at voting places. Quarantined voters had the option of casting ballots from the vehicles at temporary polling stations. Those who were unable to use a car or venture out could ask a special electoral committee to send a ballot box to their homes. 

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