http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2629-1689
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ABSTRACT
Regional elections in the Czech Republic traditionally do not attract too much attention of the voters, as there is not too much at stake: In the 2016 regional elections, the electoral turnout in the 13 regions varied between 28.94% and 38.50% Despite the low turnout, it is possible to point out some significant developments, which – at least to some extent – confirmed long-term trends: (a) Regional elections in the Czech Republic are dominated by nationwide political parties, with regional formations regularly gaining up to 10% of votes. (b) Most elected representatives concurrently hold another elected office, usually at the local level. (c) Finally, regional electoral results indicate developments in party support in the following years. In 2016, they heralded the rise of Andrej Babiš’s ANO 2011 movement and the decline in support for social democrats. Both tendencies were confirmed by the results of the 2017 parliamentary elections.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Administratively, the Czech Republic is divided into 14 regions, out of which 1 is the capital, Prague. Prague’s assembly is elected concurrently with other city and municipal assemblies and uses a different electoral system than regional elections – the system used to elect Prague’s assembly is the same as in other local elections. This means, among other things, that voters have a greater number of votes at their disposal which they can award to multiple candidate lists.
2 In 2004, the ODS won the regional elections by a landslide with 291 seats. In the 2008 elections, the same party suffered a relative defeat (180 seats) and, contrariwise, it was the Social Democrats who won by a landslide (280 seats). Four years later, the Social Democrats won in 9 regions with 205 seats. Without wishing to diminish ANO 2011’s success in 2016, we note that, while victorious, ANO 2011 won fewer seats than either the ODS or ČSSD when their support was already waning.
3 The so-called modified D’Hondt divisor is used for converting votes into seats (the division starts with the number 1.42 and continues with the standard series 2, 3, 4, …).
4 There are 45 seats to allocate in regions with fewer than 600 000 inhabitants, 55 seats in regions with 600 000–900 000 inhabitants and 65 seats in regions with more than 900 000 inhabitants (Act no. Citation130/2000).
5 The exceptions were the Ústí nad Labem region, where the regional governor was a Communist, and the Liberec region, led by the leader of the STAN party.
6 The exceptions were South Bohemia, Ústí nad Labem and Pardubice region, where the percentage of wasted votes increased.
7 Though STAN’s activities also transfer to the national level of politics; at the regional level, it is a rather loose association of mayors of municipalities in the given region, who come together under the established brand of STAN.
8 ANO 2011 and especially its leader Andrej Babiš are seen as controversial by some politicians. Voters and politicians alike are bothered by the excessive concentration of power in Babiš’s hands and his scandals (the influence he wields over the media outlets he owns, his alleged collaboration with the communist secret police before 1989 and his alleged fraudulent use of an EU subsidy, currently being investigated). Regionally, the partial isolation of ANO 2011 can also be understood as a symbolic gesture and, to some extent, as preparation for campaigning for the following elections to the Chamber of Deputies, which took place in 2017.
9 ANO 2011 won the 2017 Parliamentary election in a landslide victory with 29.64% of votes. Other parties gained less more votes: ODS gained 11.32%, SPD 10.64%, Pirates 10.79%, KSČM 7.76%, ČSSD 7.27%, KDU-ČSL 5.81%, STAN 5.18%, TOP 09 5.31%.