Czechs vote in Senate and municipal elections

On Friday and Saturday, October 9-10, 2026, Czech voters cast ballots in two overlapping elections: a first round for one third of the seats in the Senate, the upper house of the Czech Parliament, and nationwide municipal elections for mayors and local councils. Polls closed at 2 p.m. on Saturday, with 154 candidates competing for 27 Senate seats and tens of thousands of local council positions across the country. Results from smaller municipalities were expected on Saturday evening, with full tallies by Sunday morning. A second-round Senate runoff will be held on October 16-17 in districts where no candidate secures an outright majority. The vote comes months after the October 2025 lower-house election that returned Andrej Babiš's ANO movement to power, and is seen as a key test of whether the opposition can retain a counterweight in the Senate against Babiš's coalition. Radio Prague, Euronews and the IFES Election Guide carried the vote prominently as European observers watch the balance between populist and centrist forces in central Europe.