Right-wing opposition triumphs in Czech election

Jun 3, 2006, 18:38 GMT

Prague - A conservative opposition that promised tax and bureaucracy cuts narrowly defeated the left-wing party of Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek in the Czech Republic election Saturday.

The State Election Commission said the Civic Democrats (ODS) received 35 per cent of the ballots cast in the two-day election, topping the 32 per cent voter support for Paroubek's Social Democrats (CSSD).

The conservative shift in Prague mirrors a similar change in Germany last year, where the right-wing Christian Democrats unseated the incumbent Social Democrats.

Turnout in the Czech election was an unexpectedly high 64 per cent, the election commission said.

Political observers had feared that voters would boycott polls in reaction to fierce mud-slinging by Paroubek and ODS leader Mirek Topolanek in the campaign's final weeks.

The election set the stage for a likely right-wing coalition linking ODS and the Christian Democrats (KDU), which received 7 per cent of the vote.

But the CSSD, which has ruled with a liberal agenda of social spending since 1998, will retain a significant bloc of the 200-seat lower house of parliament.

In addition, Paroubek's party may draw closer to the communist party KSCM, which received 12 per cent of the vote and has supported CSSD legislation in the past year.

A possible king-maker in the post-election scramble for power is the recently organized Green Party (SZ), which will debut in parliament after winning 6 per cent of the ballots.

SZ could swing to the side of ODS or CSSD, depending on the outcome of a power struggle between the party's left- and right-wing factions.