2010 Czech Parliamentary elections: news, results, comments

Scroll below for continuous update of results, coalition details, etc.

Last night, the interim voter turnout was 50 percent, according to official sources and news outlets (and their exit polls). The overall voter turnout is 61 percent, which is not the highest number in the history of this country, as some people expected, considering the importance of these elections. Traditionally, there are parties with more loyal voters and there are other parties with less loyal voters. Moreover, voter turnout in the Czech Republic is often affected by weather. If and when the weather is nice, many people go to their cottages and weekend retreats and just ignore the elections…

(c) Petr Bokuvka via Microsoft Excel

Political parties that made it to the Parliament (lower house, 200 deputies):

ODS – Obcanska demokraticka strana – Civic Democratic Party – right-wing [EN Wiki]
TOP09 – (abbreviation = party name) – right-wing [EN Wiki]
VV – Veci verejne – Public matters – center-right-wing [EN Wiki]
CSSD – Ceska strana socialne demokraticka – Social Democratic Party – left-wing [EN Wiki]
KSCM – Komunisticka strana Cech a Moravy – Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia – left-wing [EN Wiki]

Christian Democrats and the Green Party lost their presence in the lower house because they did not reach their respective 5-percent minima… Here are interim results from 98-99 percent of all votes counted:

 

(c) Petr Bokuvka via Microsoft Excel

The tree parties that are highlighted in red above are expected to form a coalition, which leaves the two left-wing parties in the opposition. Most post-election fears were associated with the fact that the social democrats would invite communists to somehow participate in running this country! So even though social democrats won, they do not have enough seats in the lower house (with communists) to form majority…

(c) Petr Bokuvka via Microsoft Excel

UPDATE MAY 30:

And interesting example of political marketing gone wrong: communists paid to have their ads posted on one major news server even one day after the elections…

One day after the elections, an ad promising what communists have to offer is still paid for and displayed on a major news server...

… to be updated …

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Mandatory voter attendance: would it work in the Czech Republic?

Three days after the European Parliament elections that did not attract many voters throughout Europe some political parties reevaluated their losses. The Chairman of the Czech Green Party resigned because his party did not get past the threshold it needed to win at least one chair.

And German socialists suggested that the elections be mandatory and eventual absence be fined by EUR 50. Voter attendance (“cast your vote, or pay a fine”) is mandatory in Belgium, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Greece.

Czechs have numerous reasons for not voting: one of them being the fact that they like to leave towns early in the afternoon on Friday and go to their cottage in the country. So I can imagine that having mandatory voter attendance WOULD WORK in this country.

People who are “just angry” would be forced by circumstances to cast their votes, while those who are just lazy would have to decide between paying some CZK 1,500 and voting. I am sure most Czechs know of better ways to spend this kind of money.

African Czech in the race for the European Parliament

The South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic is a very traditional region of wine and farming and Christian Democrats and conservative values. But it doesn’t mean it can not be multicultural. It has an “African Czech” (analogy to African American) candidate for the 2009 European Parliament Elections, the Breclavsky denik daily writes. Meet Raymond Asuquo.

(c) The Breclavsky denik Daily

This Nigerian-born businessman has lived in the South Moravian town of Breclav for eleven years. He considers his running for this office as a way to pay back to a country that “enabled him to study”.

“I had the opportunity to study and to find a new home in the Czech Republic, so this would be my way to say thank you. Plus, the EU-level politics is an interesting challenge,” Asuquo told the daily. He is number 25 on the Civic Democrat slate in the region (i.e. the bottom half of the ballot).

He told the daily that it does not mean he is only filling the void. It will all depend on preferential votes from people. The candidate is fluent in Czech, English, German, Dutch and three Nigerian tribal languages.

Alright, I am SO gonna vote for this man. Something tells me that he knows life. He has global experience and he will be a noble representative in the European Parliament. Many other Czech politicians run for the EP because they are given the chance as a “reward” from their parties, or because they had to leave other offices. And something tells me he will be able to combine the “obligation” to represent the interests of the Czech Republic and the “One Europe” ideas… especially, since he is not a career politician.

There are 24 Czech MEP’s in Brussels and at least 13 of them have had previous experience in top politics (Parliament, Senate, advisers to MP’s…). Sure, they are more experienced than Asuquo but it does not mean they are better representatives of “ordinary people”.

To be updated on Sunday…

Czech government after no-confidence vote. Early elections coming up?

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and his cabinet did not survive a no-confidence vote instigated by the opposition leader Jiri Paroubek. It is a result of multiple disputes which the opposition claims has included forms of political corruption. In my words, fight for power, nothing else.

I said it before and I will say it again: the socialist politician Jiri Paroubek is the biggest danger to this country.

No-confidence vote during an economic crisis, during the Czech EU presidency and shortly after the economic events in Hungary is stupid, stupid, stupid. This is not democracy, this is lust for power. Sure, the senior coalition party of PM Mirek Topolanek (ODS) – or some MP’s, to be exact – have been acting unacceptably, but it is NOT hurting people.

If Paroubek wins the early elections, he will ruin this country economically, I am afraid.

Here is why…

1. In the Czech Republic people who employ vote for right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS), while people who are employed or unemployed vote for socialists (CSSD). In times of economic crisis a socialist PM can promise to do anything his voters but guess who is going to pay for this… those who still employ, who decided to hang in there. And they don’t deserve this because we are all in this crisis together…

In other words, the difference between ODS and CSSD is that ODS creates conditions and says to people “here, try your best”. CSSD just says “if you need anything, you might as well try, but if you don’t, just extend your hand”.

2. If he offers serious cooperation to communists, who are still in the Parliament but play a minor opposition role (having around 12 percent) it will be a huge bummer. Foreign investors will start fleeing because they will recall what happened in 1948 when Czechoslovak communists did their coup and this country was fucked … until 1989. And there will be less employers to employ the voters of Social Democrats…I wonder if Paroubek knows this…

Government: the number of Czech MP’s should be odd

The Czech government (coalition leaders, to be exact) came up once again with a proposal that has been “called for” for years. The number of MP’s in the Czech lower house (Chamber of Deputies) should be reduced by one, from 200 to 199. The government probably realized that the recurring tie of 100-100 has become a real problem.

There have been numerous cases of political disputes when a vote would end up in a tie and new round was called.

The upper house (Senate) does not have the same problem, as there are 81 Senators from the very beginning. The Senate can outvote the lower house.

UPDATE: TV Nova reminded tonight that this issue is a part of a backroom dealing between the senior coalition ODS party and Christian Democrats who had wanted the same prior to the elections. However, the MP number reduction is closely tied with presidential elections. For the time being Czech president is voted at a joint session of both chambers. And 199 plus 81 would equal 280, i.e. 140-140 tie risk…again. And so the Christian Democrats demand that Czech presidents be elected by people…not politicians…

What a relief

I am so glad the incompetent woman has not become the VP of the United States.

Congratulations, America.

Tragedy in Czech regional elections: Social Democrats are winning in all 13 districts

As of tomorrow 13 Czech districts will have new regional councilors. So far (Saturday, 5:20 p.m. CET) it looks like social democrats won in all 13 districts, although they did not get more than 50 percent anywhere, so they will have to start coalition talks. The “voter attendance” was 40.25 percent.

Author: (c) iDNES.cz news server

The victory of the “orange party” is a huge tragedy for his country. And it says a lot about its people, unfortunately. This is a victory of a party that “protects people from what it thinks are bad things”. And like I said before, many voters of Social Democrats are lazy and incompetent people who have no life and who fail to take any responsibility for their own actions. They have a lousy job but they will not do anything to find a new one. They think income tax shall not be a flat-rate tax, but it should be based on how much a person makes.

Czech Social Democrats think that people should have equally less.

The Civic Democrats, on the other hand, lost heavily in these elections. This is a party that sets some conditions and lets people do their best under these conditions. However, apparently not enough people appreciate it, or are capable to do so.

Michal Hasek, Jiri Paroubek and other leading social democrats are the biggest danger to this country. They know shit about advanced social state systems, like the Swedish one. What they know is that many people still know how “easy” life was for them during the communist era (in other words: they were surviving quite well doing nothing, because “we all had nothing”), and they turned this nostalgia into campaign.

According to Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, it is normal for a party that runs the country (the governing Civic Democrats) to lose regional election. It is a revenge of the opposition and its voters for the reforms the governing party has implemented. The current government introduced one-off CZK 30 fees that patients pay upon visiting their doctors’ offices and for every prescription they are issued. Although it ended wasting, Social Democrats maintain the fee is “antisocial”. That is a lie. The fee taught Czechs to behave economically, when it comes to medication(s). The measure reportedly saved hundreds of millions this year.