Czechs heading to polls to elect new government

Czech voters started heading to the polls on Friday to elect 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech Republic parliament, for four-year terms.

Some 8 million voters will cast ballots on Friday and Saturday as 26 parties and groupings are seeking seats in the lower house, four more than in the last elections, in 2021.

Seven have a "realistic chance" of winning seats, with 4,463 candidates in the running, roughly 22 for each seat, according to a report by Radio Prague International.

Many observers have called the election pivotal, as its results may expand the populist bloc in Central Europe, with polls favoring the right-wing populist ANO party, led by billionaire Andrej Babis, 71. The Czech government emerges from the Chamber of Deputies.

ANO needs to secure more than 40% of the seats to govern, a prospect that seems unlikely. However, Babis, who pledged to keep the country out of the euro area if elected, also ruled out forming a coalition with ODS, the party of incumbent Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

Polling stations opened at 2 pm local time (1200GMT) and will close at 10 pm (2000GMT) on Friday, with voting set to continue from 10 am to 2 pm local time on Saturday.

The vote count is expected to begin as soon as polling stations close on Saturday, while early results are expected later Saturday, around 6 pm local time (1600GMT).

More than 24,000 Czech nationals registered to vote abroad in the election, close to half of them by mail, according to the report.

In the previous elections, in October 2021, Babis' ANO party won 72 seats, just ahead of the Spolu coalition, led by Fiala's ODS, with 71.