The right-wing opposition Civic Democrats have come out as clear victors
in elections to a third of the upper house of the Czech parliament, the
Senate, but they have fallen short of an absolute majority. Even before
the vote-count was complete, it was clear that the ruling Social Democrats
had failed to defend any of the three seats which they were contending in
this weekend's run-offs. The smaller parties in the ruling coalition also
sustained losses. There was disappointment too for the opposition
Communists, who had nine candidates in the run-offs, but won in only one
constituency. For the first time a Senator has been elected for the Green
Party, the journalist Jaromir Stetina in Prague. The overall turnout was
extremely low, at under 20 percent, the lowest in the history of Czech
Senate elections.