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Voting has ended in the country’s regional and Senate elections. An estimated forty percent of eligible voters came to the polls to elect governors to 13 of the country’s 14 regional assemblies and senators to 27 out of 81 constituencies.

The Social Democrats have come out top in all thirteen regions, winning 36 percent of the vote, the ruling Civic Democrats are second with 23 percent, followed by the Communists with 15 percent and the two other parties in government – the Christian Democrats with 6,5 percent of the vote, and the Green Party with 3 percent.

The Social Democrats also dominated the Senate elections, where 25 of their 27 candidates will be taking part in the second round of elections next week. Twenty Civic Democrat candidates have made it to the second round, as have three Christian Democrats. A second round of voting will be held next week in 26 constituencies where no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote. Social Democrat Radek Sušil was the only candidate to secure a seat in the Senate in the first round.

The leader of the ruling Civic Democrats, Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek has conceded defeat and urged voters to come to the polls in the second round of Senate elections in order to give the party a chance to maintain the Civic Democrats’ narrow majority in the Senate. Mr. Topolánek said that the party leadership would meet on Sunday to debate the party’s defeat.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Social Democrat Jiří Paroubek, whose party won outright in four of the 13 regions where voting took place and led in the remaining 9, has thanked voters for their support and promised that his party would stand by its election promises. He said the election was not over and urged them to come to the polls in the second round of elections to the Senate next weekend.

The balance of power in the Senate will be crucial for pending votes on planned reforms, the Lisbon treaty and Parliament’s approval for a US radar base to be built on Czech soil. The opposition Social Democrats are hoping that their strong showing in the elections will further undermine the government’s position and have initiated a no-confidence vote in the coalition government next Wednesday.

A 400-strong neo-Nazi march through the town of Litvínov ended in violent clashes with the police on Saturday afternoon, as officers barred the way to a part of town inhabited by a large Romany community. The police failed to restrain the extremists and some of them managed to slip through the police cordon to the Roma inhabited area, where some 200 Romanies were waiting for them armed with sticks and other weapons. Re-enforcements were brought in and the police eventually got the situation under control. Several people have been detained for questioning.

An investigation continues into the cause of the fire that ravaged a whole wing of Prague’s historic art deco Industrial Palace at the city’s main exhibition grounds on Thursday night. The fire raged for most of the night and damages have been estimated at 1 billion crowns, the equivalent of around 50 million US dollars. The police are investigating a number of theories including the explosion of an oxygen container at one of the exhibition stalls, a short circuit and even arson. The blaze destroyed part of the building rented by the son of Social Democrat supporter Václav Kočka, whose other son was shot dead last week. The Kočka family, which holds the concession to run a fun-fair at the exhibition grounds, has in the past been accused of having links to organised crime.

US President George W Bush has named seven countries, including the Czech Republic, as having met the criteria for being added to the United States’ visa waiver programme. Others include the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Also on the list: the Czech Republic’s neighbour, Slovakia. Mr Bush said on Friday other countries were also on the path towards visa waiver. The United States requires that countries seeking inclusion in the programme issue tamper-proof biometric passports. Countries are also required to see only a low number of US visa applications rejected annually.