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Exit polls for the Czech Republic's first ever European parliamentary elections suggest a comfortable victory for the country's eurosceptic parties. According to the estimates released shortly after voting ended on Saturday, the right-of-centre opposition Civic Democrats won 31 percent of the vote, the largely unreconstructed opposition Communists 17 percent, and Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla's ruling Social Democratic party finished in third place with just 10.5 percent. They are closely followed by the strongly pro-EU European Democrats with 10 percent and the Independents with 8.5 percent of the vote. If the exit polls are confirmed by the final results, which are expected to come in early on Monday morning, the Civic Democrats would gain nine of the country's 24 seats in parliament; the Communists would obtain five seats, and the Social Democrats three seats. The exit polls were carried out for Czech Television by the SC&C agency.

The preliminary estimates also suggest that less than one in three voters bothered to cast ballots in the Czech Republic. For political commentator Bohumil Dolezal, the low voter turnout came as no surprise as Czechs no longer find elections to be exciting and new as was the case in the years after the fall of Communism. Today, he says, the enthusiasm is rapidly wearing off as people are getting fed up.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) holds hearings on Monday on charges filed by Liechtenstein against Germany over property seized in Czechoslovakia during the Second World War. Liechtenstein has brought the case to the Court on the grounds that the Federal Republic of Germany has treated Liechtenstein property in former Czechoslovakia as if it were German foreign property and used it in the settlement of its war debts. Liechtenstein considers this to be a violation of its sovereignty and of the property rights of its citizens and has asked the ICJ to declare that Germany had violated international law. Liechtenstein has been laying claim to property it acquired under the Habsburg Empire when the Liechtensteins were a powerful noble family in Austria and owned land, castles, and numerous art work on Czech territory.

Exit polls for the Czech Republic's first ever European Parliament elections, carried out by the SC&C agency for Czech Television, suggest a comfortable victory for eurosceptic parties. They estimate that the right-of-centre opposition Civic Democrats have won 31 percent of the vote, followed by the largely unreconstructed opposition Communists with 17 percent. According to the exit polls, support for the ruling Social Democrats of Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla collapsed with only 10.5 percent of the vote. They are closely followed by the strongly pro-EU European Democrats with 10 percent and the Independents grouped around former media magnate Vladimir Zelezny with 8.5 percent. The poll puts the number of votes for the Christian Democrats, part of the ruling coalition, at around 8 percent. Preliminary estimates suggest only a 29-percent turnout, despite analysts predicting that 40 percent of the electorate would turn out over the two days.

The Czech Republic was the first of the new European Union member states where voters went to the polls, to elect 24 members of the European Parliament from almost 800 candidates from 31 political parties and groupings. In line with EU legislation, counting will not begin until 10 pm on Sunday after voting has wrapped up in all 25 EU member states.