Municipal election results favor independent locals in the Czech Republic

With most of the polling results from municipal elections in around the country late last night it was clear that even though the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) may have won the most seats, the party suffered palpable losses as well. With 98 % of the election results in, ODS had won 3 985 representatives with 15.55 % of the vote. The Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) won 3 644 seats and 15.62 % of the vote. The Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) have made a comeback – after being thrown out of the lower house in the spring, the party will occupy 3 478 municipal seats with 6.53 % of the vote. Most people, however, cast their votes for various local associations of independent candidates.

At the predominantly Roma housing estate of Chanov in the town of Most, the Association of Most Locals for Most (Sdružení Mostečané Mostu) won 82.76 % of the vote. Second place went to TOP 09 with 7.11 %, while third place went to the group “Citizens for the town, the town for the citizens” (3.59 %), and fourth place to ODS (2.63 %). ČSSD and the Communists (KSČM) divided the rest of the votes. Extremists from the Workers’ Social Justice Party (DSSS) did not receive a single vote, as was expected. Almost 39 % of eligible voters went to the polls in Chanov.

In the town of Předlice in the Usti region, the Severočeši.cz (“NorthBohemians.cz”) group won with 29.61 % of the vote. Second place went to ČSSD (22.82 %), third place to ODS (10.39 %), and fourth place to the KSČM (9.75%).

At the Janov housing estate in the town of Litvínov, the scene in 2008 of an enormous attempted pogrom against the Roma living there, ČSSD won a close victory (21.78 %) over the Independents/European Democrats (SNK ED) (21.02 %). Third place went to Severočeši.cz (17.84 %), fourth to the KSČM and fifth place to ODS.

Marcel Cichý, a Roma candidate, made it onto the Trmice town council from second place on the ODS candidate list. Karel Holomek, the current Ambassador for the Czech presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, was not elected to the council of the Brno-sever district. He ran for the Green Party, which won just two seats on the council.

According to the electoral results server www.volby.cz, the Christian Democrats have pulled ahead of the Communists across the country. The KSČM won 2 772 seats (9.72 %), followed by the Movement of Mayors and Independents (Hnutí Starostové a nezávislí – STAN) with 1 211 council members (1.46 %). STAN also gained another 1 058 votes in coalition with independent candidates.

TOP 09, which works closely with the STAN movement, won 1 001 seats (5.37 %), while their partner in the right-wing governing coalition, Public Affairs (Věci veřejné – VV) won 228 seats (2.07 %). SNK ED won only 508 seats with 1.48 % of the vote.

The parties’ results will influence their participation in various local coalitions. Overall voter participation was estimated at 48.4 % late last night.