On October 17 and 18 Czechs will go to the polls in Senate and regional elections. Voting will take place in thirteen regions and for a third of the seats in the 81-seat upper house of Parliament, the Senate. Senators are elected for a six-year-term and elections to the upper house take place once every two years in 27 constituencies. Senators are elected by a majority voting system. A second round of voting is held a week later in constituencies where no candidate has won more than 50 percent of the vote.

In Prague people will only vote in the Senate elections; regional elections in the Czech capital will take place in 2010 together with municipal elections.

Although it is elections to the 200-seat lower house which are decisive in terms of who rules the country, the Senate and regional elections are viewed as an important test of the government’s position and popularity with the public. This is particularly true of the current centre-right coalition of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Green Party, which has a fragile majority in the lower house, recently further undermined by party infighting and corruption scandals. Moreover the Civic Democrats currently have 41 senators in the 81-seat upper house, which means that they will be defending their fragile majority in the Senate.