Gor Vartazaryan

In Autumn 2022 Municipal and Senate elections were held without special provisions for covid voters. The first round of Senate elections and Municipal elections were held on the same days. The electoral system for municipal councils is explained here. Those elections brought many surprising results which will be summarized in this brief news:

Tomio Okamura’s Freedom and Direct Democracy party gained three times more seats than in previous municipal elections. The rise of the far right in general is trending in the whole of Europe. For example in the Swedish parliamentary elections to Riksdag in September 2022, Sweden democratic party gained 62 seats and is currently t Italy's general election in September). In Italy's general election far-right Brothers of Italy party won the elections and their leader Giorgia Meloni became prime minister of Italy.

One of the most surprising results of the Senate election was the election of Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová from constituency n. 76 – Kroměříž. Hamplová is known for her radical opinions regarding COVID-19. For example, she claims that the obligation to wear masks contradicted the Constitution, specifically Article 31 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. This states that "everyone has the right to health protection. Citizens have the right to free health care on the basis of public insurance and to medical aids under the conditions laid down by law." However, it is under the Public Health Protection Act that these regulations are made.  Overall, after the Senate elections, mainstream parties that are against the populist Andrej Babiš movement ANO strengthened their position in the Senate.

An interesting situation occurred in the municipal election in the Želízy constituency. In Želízy seven members of municipal assembly needed to be elected. Unfortunately, only six candidates registered for the elections and two of them, a week before the election, changed their minds and withdrew from the candidacy. As a result, only four seats were filled. Thus, new elections need to take place. The Ministry of Interior already announced new elections that will take place on 7th January.

After the elections, the Supreme administrative court (hereinafter „SAC") received four complaints about the Senate electoral results. The last was submitted by former Senator Jan Horník. In his complaint, Horník alleged that he had been under a massive negative campaign with false information on Facebook and Instagram and in a large outdoor advertisement that read "Jan Horník (STAN) - Immunity will come in handy." According to him, it was a professional job that dehumanized him in front of thousands of people in the region. The SAC acknowledged that the campaign could be considered "indiscriminate to the point of being in bad taste". However, Horník responded to the attacks and offered his counterclaims in the public space. "It was therefore up to the electorate, not the SAC, to be the arbiters of the persuasiveness of the allegations contained in the negative campaign against him, or conversely the allegations by which he refuted them," the decision said. All the complaints were rejected and finally confirmed the results of the elections.

November 2022

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