Saturday, September 24, 2022

2022 Municipal and Senate Elections

Czechs voted in the 2022 municipal and Senate elections.  Voting in Czechland is held over two days.  On Friday from 14:00 to 22:00 and on Saturday from 8:00 to 14:00.

For the Senate, and presidential, elections there is a two-round plurality voting system in place.  This means that the top two candidates from the first round face off again in a second round of voting.  Czech senators are elected for six-year terms and there are elections every two years.  So every elections ⅓ of all Senate seats are up for grabs.

For municipal elections there's an open party-list proportional representation system.  Municipal councillors are elected for four-year terms.  There are from 5 to 55 councillors for each municipality.  Voters can vote for as many seats are available for the particular municipal council and the votes can be distributed to candidates across all political parties.  Councillors are then selected proportionally based on the number of votes won by each party.

Today I went with Kája to a local elementary school so that he could cast his vote.  He checked in, they gave him an envelope that he took to a voting area.  After making his choices, placed his votes in a sealed envelope and placed it in the voting bin.  It seemed pretty easy and he was done in just over 10 minutes.

EU-citizens are allowed to vote in the Czech municipal elections.  Here's a short PSA video in English, with Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib, telling people about voting in municipal elections.

©Piráti

I not an EU-citizen so I don't get to vote.  I still need to sort out a notarised copy of my birth certificate so that I can finally submit my application for Czech citizenship.  Once I become a Czech citizen then I'll finally be able to vote.

The second round of voting for the Senát will take place on 30 September and 1 October 2022.

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