Czech Republic: Babiš's ANO leads after first round of Senate election
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's movement leads in local and Senate elections, with up to 13 ANO candidates heading for runoffs on Oct. 16–17. ANO is not on course to win in Prague.
Archive image · Photo: Vox España / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš's ANO movement leads after the first round of the Czech Senate election, held on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 9–10) alongside municipal elections. At stake were 27 of the 81 Senate seats, contested by 154 candidates including 23 incumbents. With more than 93% of polling stations counted, preliminary Czech Statistical Office data showed ANO could have the most candidates, 13, in the runoffs. Up to six candidates could win outright with more than 50%, none of them from ANO. The remaining 21 seats will be decided in runoffs on Oct. 16 and 17.
More than eight million voters also chose councils in about 6,255 municipalities, with around 190,000 candidates competing for some 62,000 seats. According to AP, independents and local groupings won most seats nationwide. ANO was heading for victory in some regional capitals, but not in Prague. When he voted, the 72-year-old Babiš expressed hope for success in the capital, dpa reported.
The vote is the first test for Babiš since his decisive win in the October 2025 parliamentary election. He governs with two small partners that want to scale back support for Ukraine and reject some EU policies. The Senate is controlled by pro-Western opposition parties, and ANO hopes to gain ground there. The chamber can pass constitutional amendments and approve Constitutional Court judges, although the lower house dominates the legislative process.