Polling stations open for general election

Some 15,000 polling stations around the country opened at 2 PM on Friday for Czechs to vote in a two-day general election to the lower house of Parliament. In the fifth general elections held since the country’s establishment in 1993, 25 parties are contesting 200 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Czech President Václav Klaus cast his vote in a Prague polling station on Friday afternoon; Social Demcorat leader Jiří Paroubek voted in Teplice, north Bohemia, where he’s heading his party ballot, and Civic Democrat leader Petr Nečas in his home town of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm in northern Moravia.

The polling stations will close for the night, and re-open on Saturday at 8 AM. Czechs have a chance to cast their ballots until 2 PM on that day. Around 8 million Czech citizens are entitled to vote in the general elections; in the last four years ago, the turnout was just below 65 percent.