Czechs open two days of Senate voting, with the opposition defending 26 of 27 seats

Czech voters opened the first round of Senate and local elections on Friday, the first national test for Prime Minister Andrej Babiš since his ANO movement returned to power after the October 2025 parliamentary election. Twenty-seven of the 81 Senate seats are on the ballot, one in each district up this year. Senators serve six-year terms, and a third of the chamber is renewed every two years.

Polling stations opened at 14:00 and close at 22:00 on Friday. They reopen on Saturday from 08:00 to 14:00 local time. Counting starts when stations close on Saturday. The Associated Press photographed Babiš casting his ballot in Pruhonice on Friday.

Who is defending what

The arithmetic is stacked against the government before a single Saturday tally is published. Opposition parties hold a majority in the Senate and are defending 26 of the 27 seats on the ballot. ANO defends one. On the chamber's own figures from 6 October, the groups stood at ODS and TOP 09 with 9 of their 30 seats up, STAN with 10 of 17, ANO with 1 of 15, KDU-ČSL with 3 of 12, and the SEN 21 and Pirate grouping with 3 of 5. One seat was vacant.

ANO's stated aim going into the round was to come close to winning ten districts. Ten would be a large gain from a base of one defence. It would still leave the opposition with a majority unless later cycles move the same way. The Senate cannot bring down a government. It can delay bills, and it has a role in confirming constitutional judges and in treaties. A chamber that remains in opposition hands is a brake on the programme Babiš took back to the Straka Academy last autumn.

How a seat is won

The rule is a majority, not a plurality. A candidate who takes more than 50 percent of valid votes in a district is elected in the first round. If no one does, the top two meet in a runoff on 16 and 17 October, and the one with more votes wins. In recent Czech Senate cycles the runoff has decided most seats. A strong Friday and Saturday showing for ANO can still fail if the opposition consolidates behind a single name a week later.

Local elections are being held on the same days. Mayors and councils do not change the Senate maths, but they are the other half of the test Babiš faces. ANO's strength in 2025 was national. Municipal maps in Bohemia and Moravia have often looked different from the Chamber of Deputies. A party can gain Senate districts and still lose town halls, or the reverse.

What Saturday will and will not show

No result is valid until stations close at 14:00 on Saturday. Early commentary on Friday turnout is not a result. The figures that will matter on Saturday evening are how many of the 27 districts produce a first-round winner, and how many go to the 16 October runoff with an ANO candidate in the top two.

The new senators take their oath at the first Senate session after the election. Until that sitting, the outgoing members of the 27 districts keep their seats. For the government, the practical date is not Friday. It is the Saturday close, and then the Saturday a week later, when most of these 27 names are likely to be decided.