General election held in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is voting in a general election on Friday and Saturday, with nine parties running for seats in the 200-member lower house of the national parliament. The populist billionaire Andrej Babis’ Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO, Czech for ‘yes’) party held a 25-percentage-point lead in opinion polls in the run-up to the ballot. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s center-left Social Democrats (CSSD) and the centrist Christian Democrats (ODS), the members of the incumbent ruling coalition, are expected to stay in power with ANO at hand, but a possible alliance between ANO and the right-wing euroskeptic Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party is also on the table.