Czech elections: polling stations close across Czechia

Polling stations across the Czech Republic closed on Saturday at 2pm after a two-day long voting period in which citizens cast their ballots to decide on which parties will make up the Czech government over the next four years.

Turnout during the two-day election period was unusually high in some districts, with some local election administrators stating that up to 70 percent of voters turned up to cast their ballot in their precincts.

According to the Ministry of Interior, the past two days of voting were calm. However, police in Brno are searching for an anonymous prank caller who falsely reported that a bomb was hidden in one of the city’s polling stations. In another incident at a polling station in Pardubice, police had to be sent out after one of the station’s administrators refused to put on a mask and adhere to coronavirus restrictions.

As is traditional, politicians and constitutional officials were among those who turned up to vote in an election that is seen in the country partly as a referendum on Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. The Czech prime minister voted on Friday in the district of Lovosice. He told assembled journalists that this is the last time that he is running in an election.

It is expected that all of the votes will have been counted by the end of the day.