Czech Senate, local elections enter 2nd day

Czechs resumed voting for the Senate and local elections for the second day on Saturday, which are seen as a "referendum" for the future Czech government.

The elections started at 8:00 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), and will close at 1200 GMT, with results expected later in the evening or on Sunday morning.

Voters will choose one third of the 81 senators, as well as thousands of municipal assembly members. Any candidate winning an outright majority in his precinct takes the Senate seat. If no candidate has a majority, the top two contestants will have to take a runoff vote on Oct. 27-28.

The normally low-key Senate elections have been sharpened this time due to the 20-week old political deadlock in the lower house and a pre-election corruption scandal about former prime minister and Social Democrat leader Jiri Paroubek.

Parliamentary elections in June left the Czech parliament split down the middle, with 100 lawmakers on each side -- the rightist Civic Democratic Party and the leftist Social Democratic Party, of the 200-seat lower house.

On Sept. 4, President Vaclav Klaus appointed Mirek Topolanek to form a cabinet after his Civic Democratic Party narrowly won the elections, but that government resigned a month later after losing a confidence vote in parliament.

Topolanek has said that he wants early elections to end the stalemate, while opposition Paroubek prefers a grand coalition of the two biggest parties.

Results of the current elections may indicate whether such a coalition is possible or early elections are more likely.

Source: Xinhua