Communist Vaclav Homolka elected to Senate

The Communist Party's Vaclav Homolka has been elected as the new senator for the Chomutov region after the second round of voting. Mr Homolka won more than half of the votes cast, finishing about 10 percent ahead of his nearest rival Jan Rehak from the Civic Democrats. Only 9.73 percent of those eligible to vote actually participated in the poll, making it the lowest ever turnout in the history of Senate elections. Mr Homolka will replace the independent senator Petr Skala who resigned his seat earlier this year for health reasons.