July 29th marks deadline for parties registering for autumn elections
Political parties and their coalitions have their last chance on July 29th to register for this year's parliamentary elections, with the registration window expiring at 4:00 pm. After that time, a new stage of the election season begins.
In the last parliamentary elections four years ago, twenty-two groups successfully registered, of which the coalition Spolu (comprising ODS, TOP 09 and KDU-ČSL) won the most votes, ahead of the ANO movement, the party of incumbent prime minister Andrej Babiš.
Only Spolu is running as an electoral coalition this year, although the right-wing Freedom and Direct Democracy party (SPD) has representatives from the Trikolora, Svobodní and PRO parties on its candidate lists. Similarly, some Greens are running for the Pirates. The Communists and Social Democrats, who lost their seats in the Chamber of Deputies four years ago, have a chance to fill them this year as part of the candidate list of the Stačilo! party.
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Current election polls do not give other parties any hope of having their representatives elected. Of these, the Motorists (Motoristé sobě) and Oath (Přísaha) parties are doing best, although the two parties did not renew last year's joint candidacy for the European elections.
For smaller and regional parties, parliamentary elections usually represent an opportunity to increase their visibility during the election campaign within the legally defined broadcasting space of Czech Television and Czech Radio.
Candidate lists must be submitted to regional authorities and the Prague City Hall. They will then check whether the parties and movements have met all the requirements required by the electoral law. They will register acceptable candidate lists on Friday, August 15th. The elections will then take place on October 3rd and 4th.
