European Parliament count to start following low turnout

Staying with politics, Czech votes in European Parliament elections will start being counted at 10 PM local time on Sunday. Although Czech polling booths closed on Saturday afternoon, the count has been postponed until citizens of all 27 EU countries have finished voting. Early indications suggest around a quarter of Czechs voted this time round. That would be a fall from the 28.3 percent in 2004. A lower turnout is expected to favour the right-wing Civic Democrats. The European Parliament poll is expected to provide an indicator of party strength ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. Czechs will fill 22 seats in the 736-seat European Parliament.