8th January 2016

Autumn 2016 elections are getting closer

According to the CTK Czech New Agency and the pravniprostor.cz server, the political parties represented in the Czech Parliament plan to spend millions of Czech crowns in election campaigning. Regional elections and elections to the Senate, the Upper Chamber of the Czech Parliament, will be held in autumn 2016. Christian Democrats and the Usvit movement plan to spend around Kc 10 mil., TOP 09 want to spend tens of millions of crowns and STAN, the movement of mayors and independent politicians, plans to spend Kc 15mil. the Communist Party’s budget is Kc 20 mil. All the above mentioned parties, including Civic Democrats, either already have established or will open transparent accounts for the purpose of elections.
New rules for political party financing were proposed within the draft amendment to the Act on Association in Political Parties and Political Movements  that is currently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies. These rules won't apply to the autumn 2016 elections, though. 
In the 2013 general election, the currently ruling coalition of Social Democrats, ANO and Christian Democrats, spent Kc 86.9 mil., 111 mil. and bellow Kc30mil., respectively, on election campaigns. Budgets for regional and Senate elections are generally lower. Read details (in Czech).

The coalition government needs at least six mandates out of 27 available mandates to maintain majority in the Senate. Read more (in Czech). Another insight here.

Also, view recent statistics related to participation of female candidates in elections (a table in Czech and English attached). More related data published by the Czech Statistical Office are available here.

Accroding to the Nations in Transit analysis produced by the Freedom House, the Czech Republic's rating of electoral process remains unchanged since 2011.

Next general elections will be held in October 2017, followed by presidential elections in January 2018. 

Democracy means more than just holding elections. “It’s being involved in between elections, throughout the whole policy process—from what should be worked on to what the policies are to how they’re funded, to whether or not the money reaches your communities,” says John Gaventa, head of the Coedy International Institute. 

 

 

Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic