Czech Constitutional Court confirms final composition of lower house

The composition of Czechia’s lower house of parliament, as determined by last year’s election, is now final after the Constitutional Court rejected the last outstanding legal challenge. The complaint was filed by Petr Beitl, the Liberec regional leader of the Spolu coalition, who failed to win a seat after his region lost a quarter of its parliamentary mandates compared with previous elections, with seats redistributed to other regions. Beitl had challenged parts of the electoral law, particularly the method used to convert votes into seats in the second round of allocation. The court said judges cannot change clearly established electoral rules after an election has taken place and then apply those new interpretations retroactively to alter the result.