Polls closed in the Czech Republic for the first round of local and Senate elections on Saturday, 24 September at 14:00. Voters cast ballots for local assembly members and in one-third of the country also voted for 27 senators, determining the balance of power in the upper house.

News server Romea.cz has confirmed at least 215 Romani men and women ran for local office this year, although according to other estimates, as many as 300 such candidates may have run. Just one Romani person ran for the Senate, Štěpán Kavúr for the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) in Prague 10.

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News server Romea.cz has determined that at least 13 Romani candidates succeeded in being seated on local assemblies during this year’s elections.

• Bc. Renata Adamová, Chomutov, ANO
• Mgr. Josef Baláž, Praha 14, (Civic Democratic Party – ODS)
• Mgr. Bc. Monika Berkyová, Stříbro, ANO
• Mgr. Marian Dancso, MBA, Lom, OMMO
• Bc. Jiří Daniel st., Olomučany, Sdružení pro Olomučany (ČSSD)
• Karel Karika, Ústí nad Labem-město, PRO! Ústí (Piráti)
• Andrea Kuchtová, Krupka, SPD
• Ing. Josef Sivák, Šluknov, Místní hnutí nezávislých za harmonický rozvoj obcí a měst
• Mgr. Rudolf Tippan, Vintířov, pro Vintířov
• Jiří Sivák, Vřesová, Za obec a změny k lepšímu
• František Gašpár, Vřesová, Za obec a změny k lepšímu
• Milan Karička, Vřesová, Za obec a změny k lepšímu
• Zdeněk Kavur, Vřesová, Za obec a změny k lepšímu

News server Romea.cz has determined that four Romani candidates have now been seated on the local assembly of the small village of Vřesová in the Sokolov area. The group called “For the village and change for the better” (Za obec a změny k lepšímu), for whom they ran, won 66.95 % of the vote and will hold six of the nine local assembly seats. The leader of the list, Jiří Sivák, has been re-elected mayor. In the village, which has 322 registered voters, turnout was almost 70 %.

8:34

The Association of Independent Candidates Poděbrady, led by the Mayor of Poděbrady Jaroslav Červinka, who was criticized for his anti-Romani racist remarks, won with seven seats on the local assembly. “The Choice for Poděbrady” (Volba pro Poděbrady) came in second and will have five local assembly members. Červinka wants to continue to lead the town and said coalition negotiations will begin soon. “I believe we would like to continue,” Czech Radio reported him as saying.

8:31

Nationwide, the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) won the most local assembly members during this year’s local elections, as was the case four years ago. Second place went to the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and third place went to the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement. Compared to the 2018 results, significant losses were suffered by the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD), the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM), and by STAN as well. Other parties in the coalition government at national level also lost their local seats. The “Freedom and Direct Democracy”(SPD) movement has improved its results significantly, while the ANO opposition movement made slight gains.

8:21

In Brno, the Romani men and women running for what the media are reporting is a bizarre group of communists and neo-Nazis called “Restart for Brno” (Restart pro Brno) have not been seated in any of the Brno municipal departments’ assemblies. Josef Baldr, the head of the candidate list for the Brno-sever Municipal Department, won 239 votes and Restart pro Brno scored 1.64 % of the vote there.

8:12

Several well-known Romani figures failed to be elected to local assemblies this year. In Kolín, for example, Cyril Koky was not elected, as the Pirates won 2.14 % of the vote. Koky received 217 votes. Another Cyril Koky in Frýdek-Místek, also running for the Pirates, lost his bid as well. In Frýdek-Místek, the Pirates won 4.96 % and missed being seated in the local assembly by just a few votes. Claudie Laburdová ran for the Pirates in Prague 9 and was also not seated. The Pirates did seat four local assembly members in that municipal department, but Laburdová won just 1,685 votes and was running in 17^th place on the list, so she did not score a seat. In the Silesian Ostrava municipal department, Jaroslav Horvath was not seated; he ran in 10^th place on the “Together for Silesia” (Společně pro Slezskou) list, scoring a total of 332 votes.

7:59

Romani candidate Štěpán Kavúr lost all of his bids, two local and one for the Senate. He ran for the ČSSD in the Senate, scoring 898 votes or 2.7 %, coming in last. In the local elections he first ran in the Prague 10 municipal department for Solidarity, a group that scored 3.08 % of the vote and therefore was not seated on the local assembly. Kavúr won 1,058 votes in that local contest. He also ran in 49^th place on the Solidarity list for the Prague City Assembly, which won 2.01 % of the votes and was therefore not seated there either. In the citywide contest, Kavúr won a total of 6,759 votes.

7:49

Marco Cavali, chair of the Roma Luma political party, will not be seated on the Prague 11 municipal department’s local assembly. The group called “R. Vašíček – WE WHO LIVE HERE” (R. Vašíček – MY CO TU ŽIJEME), for which he ran in third place, won just 3.04 % of the vote and was not seated. Cavali won 686 votes, another Romani candidate on the list, Stanislav Byl, won 676 votes, and a third, Kateřina Ferencová, won 651 votes. The lead candidate, Robert Vašíček, a former member of the SPD, won 876 votes. The victor became the “Movement for Prague 11 (Christian Democrats)” (Hnutí pro Prahu 11 (KDU-ČSL)), which won 11 seats, followed by the ANO movement, which won 10.

7:22

“I’d like to thank all the Romani people who supported us and went to the polls. I greatly value your trust and I will do everything in my power to make things better here,” Romani candidate Jozef Baláž told news server Romea.cz in response to his election. “I want to thank the ODS for their offer of a candidacy,” added the successful candidate, who won  2,323 votes in Prague 14.

7:02

Another Romani assembly member is elected! In the Prague 14 municipal department, Jozef Baláž, who ran for the ODS, has been seated. That party won with 20.46 % of the voted locally, which means seven local assembly seats. The ANO movement came in second and will have five seats. The same number of seats will go to the group called “Neighbors for Prague 14” (Sousedé pro Prahu 14), for which independents and members of TOP 09 ran as candidates. Four seats will go to the association called “Prague 14 for itself” (Praha 14 Sobě).

23:37

In Šluknov another Romani local assembly member, Josef Sivák, has been elected. He is returning to office after an eight-year absence. Sivák ran in fifth place for the “Local Movement for Harmonious Development” (Místní hnutí za harmonický rozvoj), which won four seats, and Sivák together with two other candidates scored enough preferential votes to move ahead of Pavel Kout, who was running in second place on the list. The overall victor of the local elections in Šluknov was the STAN movement, which will have five seats on the 15-member assembly.

22:55

Karel Karika will be yet another Romani assembly member seated locally. He has defended his mandate on the local assembly of the  Ústí nad Labem-město municipal department, where the “FOR! Ústí” (PRO! Ústí) movement won 20.2 % of the vote, ending up in second place behind the ANO movement (23.48 %). Karika earned 1,798 votes. However, he was not re-elected to his seat on the Ústí nad Labem City Assembly because he ran in 30^th place and PRO! Ústí won just eight seats there.

22:44

Romani candidates have not been elected to the municipal department of Ústí nad Labem-Neštěmice. “The Association – Health Sport Prosperity” (Sdružení Zdraví Sport Prosperita), for which Lukáš Pulko ran in second place and Vladimír Gorol ran in eighth place, was not seated. Pulko earned 106 votes and Gorol scored 95. The STAN movement did not win there either, for which Romani candidate Maria Džobáková was running in third place and won 109 votes. Romani candidate Milada Vyleťalová also ran for the “Oath” (Přísaha) party there and scored 56 votes. The victor was the “Your Ústí” (Vaše Ústí) movement, which will now have seven local assembly members, followed by the ANO movement with four and the SPD and Tricolor coalition with two.

22:37

A total of five Romani men and women who ran for different parties in Jihlava failed to be seated. While the Jihlava cell of the Pirates did win four seats on the local assembly, Pavlína Pompová Janufová, the Romani candidate the highest up on their list, ran in 13^th place and was therefore not seated. Neither the Communists nor the “Hearts for Jihlava” (Jihlava srdcem) association, for which two female Romani candidates ran, were seated. The ANO movement won there with 28.52 % of the vote, while the coalition of KDU-ČSL and ODS came in second with 22.67 % of the vote.

22:16

In Cheb, Martin Čonka, a lawyer and Romani community member, did not defend his mandate on the local assembly. He almost kept his post because the “Choice for the City of Cheb” (Volba pro město Cheb) movement scored six seats in the local assembly and he ran in seventh place. Compared to the 2018 elections, that movement lost its leadership position, which was won this year by ANO with 31.7 % of the vote, which equals 11 local assembly members.

21:38

The Roma Luma party has suffered a debacle in Sokolov, where it fielded a full candidate list of 27 people. The party scored just 0.46 % of the vote, and of more than 6,200 eligible voters, 25 cast ballots for them. In other words, not even all the Roma Luma candidates themselves voted for their own party – or maybe didn’t even vote at all. Roma Luma ended up in last place in this local contest as well.

20:46

Hradec Králové is another failure for the Roma Luma party, coming in last place at a significant distance from their competitors. Roma Luma won just 0.31 % of the vote, and of more than 30,000 voters, just about 100 people cast ballots for each of their candidates. Only the leader of the list, Jan Bendig, scored a few more votes – 180.

20:37

“I want to thank all the voters for their support and their votes. I can’t believe the results were so beautiful. I still don’t really believe it, but I will do my best not to disappoint your trust. Thank you,” Romani community member Renata Adamová told Romea.cz after learning she will be a local assembly member in Chomutov for another four years.

20:18

In the Košťany municipality in the Ústecký Region, the Roma Luma party’s candidate Jozef Danč did not win election. Of a total of 1,260 voters, just 23 people chose him.

20:06

Another Romani local assembly member is elected! Renata Adamová, running for the ANO movement, has now been re-elected in Chomutov. ANO won with 29.73 % of the vote and will have 13 seats on the 35-member local assembly.

19:49

Disappointment in Trmice: After eight years on the local assembly, local Romani candidates running on the “FOR! Trmice” (PRO! Trmice) list were not re-elected. The party won 5.36 % of the vote, which was not enough to secure any mandates. Both Ján Bajger and his son Martin Bajger lost their seats, and just 40 voters chose the Romani candidates in Trmice. The victor is the STAN movement, led by current Mayor Jana Oubrechtová. However, another successful candidate was the principal of the local primary school, Marie Gottfriedová, who won the Alice Garrigue Masaryk Human Rights Award in 2015 from the US Embassy. Under her leadership, that school successfully works with the idea of inclusive education, according to which students with different educational needs should attend the same schools together.

19:40

Another Romani local assembly member has been re-elected. Jiří Daniel (ČSSD) will hold office for another four years in Olomučany. The “Association for Olomučany” (Sdružení pro Olomučany), for which he was the lead candidate, won 18.91 % of the vote and three local assembly seats.

19:30

In Bílina the leader of the extremist DSSS party, Tomáš Vandas, has now been seated on the local assembly. The group “Bílina Clean and Safe”, for which he ran, won 7.18 % and will seat two candidates on the local assembly. The ANO movement was the victor with 11 local assembly members, while the SPD-Tricolor coalition came second with five seats.

19:20

Andrea Kuchtová, the Romani candidate in Krupka running for the SPD movement, is now a local assembly member. The movement ended up in fifth place with 8.31 % of the vote and won two local assembly member seats. Kuchtová ran in second place on the list. The victor of the elections in Krupka was the ANO movement with 21.46 % of the vote and five seats.

19:08

Another Romani local assembly member is elected! Marián Dancso, an educator, has defended his post on the local assembly of the town of Lom. The movement that he ran for, “Citizens for the Town, the Town for the Citizens” (Občané městu, město občanům), scored 9.51 % of the vote, coming in fourth place and winning two seats. The overall victor was the Sveročeši.cz (“NorthBohemians.cz”) group, which won 32.82 % of the vote.

18:55

There is a Romani local assembly member in Stříbro! Running for the ANO movement this time, Monika Berkyová has defended her post. During the 2018 elections she ran on the Pirates’ list. ANO was the overwhelming victor in Stříbro with 46.15 % of the vote.

18:40

In Raspenava, the Roma Luma political party has lost. The party came in last with 3.08 % of the vote; approximately 30 people cast ballots for them. The victor was the group called “For the Renewal of the Village” (Za obnov obce), while second place went to the “For the development of the town” group (Pro rozvoj města). The SPD came in third and won two seats.

18:09

In Duchcov, the extremist Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS) was not re-elected to the local assembly, where they governed together with the ČSSD for the last two electoral periods. DSSS gained just 3.53 % of the votes and came in last. The victor is the ANO movement (27.57 %), with ČSSD in second place (26.09 %). Each holds six seats on the 21-member local assembly.

17:23

“I thank all the voters who cast their ballots for our association and who also chose me. I got 115 votes and I thank you all very much for them. I promise the voters that my colleagues and I will stick to our program and do our best to deliver it. We will not back down on our principles. We will do all we can so as not to disappoint our citizens. We have hard work and change ahead of us,” Romani candidate Rudolf Tippan told Romea.cz in response to his election.

17:04

The Romani community has learned of its first local assembly member in this year’s local elections, Rudolf Tippan in Vintířov! Tippan ran for the group called “For Vintířov”, which came in second with three local assembly seats. However, the independent group “For a More Beautiful City” (Za obec krásnější) will apparently be the governing force there, as it won six seats on the 11-member local assembly.

16:32

In the Předlice quarter of Ústí nad Labem, a socially excluded locality with many Romani residents, 39 out of 975 eligible voters cast ballots in precinct 1014. The ANO movement won there with 23.17 %. Second place goes to the coalition of the SPD and Tricolor (14.54 %), while third place goes to the “Ústí Citizens’ Forum” (Ústecké fórum občanů – UFO) with 11.53 %.

16:00

Until his death in 2020, Romani community member Pavel Červenický (ČSSD) was the Mayor of Milhostov, one of 13 Romani local assembly members elected nationwide in 2018. This year the SPD movement is the victor there, with 50.18 % of the vote and a majority of four seats on the seven-member local assembly.

15:30

In the Senate elections in the Chanov quarter of Most, where many Romani people live, just 31 valid ballots were cast. The victor, with 23 votes, was the “For MOST” (ProMOST) movement’s Jan Paparega, with Alena Dernerová winning five votes.

15:22

For the local assembly elections in the Chanov quarter of Most, where many Romani people live, locals largely stayed away. Voter turnout was just 8.56 %, much less than in 2018, when 22.24 % of eligible voters went to the polls. In absolute numbers, this means just 57 eligible voters cast ballots in the local contest. Just as happened four years ago, the “For MOST” (ProMOST) movement became the overwhelming victor here. This year they won 89 % of the vote, with second place going to the KSČM (4.37 %) and ANO coming in a close third (4.32 %). The Pirates and the Greens won 2.21% of the vote here.

15:05

The first results are in from the Janov housing estate in Litvínov, where many Romani people live. In voting precinct no. 4, out of 284 eligible voters, just 15 cast their ballots for a total of 345 valid votes.

The ANO movement won here with 26.67 %, while another three entities earned the exact same number of votes – 20 % each. Those entities were the “A Better North” (Lepší sever) group, the SPD with the support of Tricolor, and SPOLU (Together).

14:15

During this year’s local elections about 40 % of eligible voters cast ballots. However, there are big differences between municipalities.

In some places participation is close to two-thirds of eligible voters, in others it is not even one-tenth. The Czech News Agency reports that participation in the voting for one-third of the Senate was slightly less than the local turnout.

14:00

The polls have closed. The counting of the votes is beginning.