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Czech Republic votes in regional and Senate elections
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 17 - 10 - 2008


Czech voters Friday began casting ballots in
regional and Senate elections that could shake up Czech Prime
Minister Mirek Topolanek's rule and affect the country's ratification
of the EU Lisbon Treaty, according to dpa.
The Czech Republic has been divided into 14 regions since 2000.
Their governments have been since dominated by Topolanek's senior
ruling Civic Democratic Party.
Prague, also a Civic Democratic bastion, is officially a region
but its government is elected in a municipal election that last took
place in 2006.
Topolanek's party currently governs 12 out of 13 regions where
elections are taking place.
Two years into Topolanek's rule, marked by unpopular
belt-tightening measures, his party is expected to lose
its dominance.
"The Social Democrats have understandably turned the election into
a referendum on the government. Regional issues would not win them
the election," said political scientist Tomas Lebeda.
Failure to defend "less than a half" of regions could cause
Topolanek a serious headache, Lebeda said.
Leftist opposition and Topolanek's opponents inside his party, led
by Prague's mayor Pavel Bem, could use a significant loss to unseat
the premier.
The Social Democrat party already plans to call for a vote of no
confidence next week, likely on Wednesday.
Czech voters are also picking 27 of country's 81 senators. Their
choice could have an impact on the Czech Republic's ratification of
EU's Lisbon Treaty aimed at overhauling bloc's institutions.
Topolanek's party currently holds 41 seats, a comfortable absolute
majority that would enable mostly eurosceptic Civic Democratic
senators to bloc the treaty. Such a veto could not be overruled.
Topolanek, who takes over as the bloc's president in January,
signed the treaty, which is currently being considered by the
country's Constitutional Court.
Unlike President Vaclav Klaus, the premier has spoken in its
favour. But, Lebeda said, secret intentions could differ from
official declarations.
The Civic Democrats are defending nine seats from the 27 that are
up for grabs. Under such circumstances retaining the absolute
majority should not be a problem, analysts say.
"The turnout will be low and that helps the Civic Democrats. They
also tend to have strong candidates," Lebeda said.
Voting ends at 2 pm (1200 GMT) Saturday. The Senate election's
second round in districts where no candidate wins an absolute
majority this weekend is scheduled for next Friday and Saturday.


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