Judge: Voting can go ahead even if legislators haven’t ratified change

The head of the electoral senate at the Czech Supreme Administrative Court, Tomáš Langášek, says that general elections can be held in October even if politicians fail to respond on time to a major ruling on the electoral law. Parliament is obliged to ratify a Constitutional Court verdict repealing elements of the law it said discriminated against small parties. Mr. Langášek said on Thursday that he strongly believed politicians would deal with the matter by October.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has strongly criticised the Constitutional Court ruling, which he says is a deliberately timed attempt to influence the political situation.

Under the changes, blocs of parties running together will need to reach 5 percent of the vote to enter the lower house, just like single groupings. In addition it will no longer be necessary to take far more votes to win seats in some constituencies than in others.