Statistical Yearbook of the Czech Republic

       They were held in compliance with Act No. 62/2003 Coll., on the Elections to the European Parliament and on Amendments to Certain Acts (hereinafter referred to the Act only). The date of elections was stipulated by the president of the Czech Republic’s Decision No. 55/2004 Coll. Elections to the European Parliament are held on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot, following the principle of proportional representation. In these first elections, 24 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected in the Czech Republic for a five-year term of office. The whole of the Czech Republic was the electoral region in the framework of which the seats were distributed.

       Any citizen of the Czech Republic or any citizen of another Member State of the EU could be elected on the territory of the Czech Republic a Member of the European Parliament if on the second day of elections at the latest he/she had been for a minimum period of 45 days registered on the territory of the Czech Republic in the population register under a special law, had attained the age of 21 on the second day of elections at the latest, had not been deprived of legal capacity and met the conditions for the exercise of the right to vote stipulated by the law. The active right to vote was limited by the attainment of the age of 18 years on the second election day at the latest. However, the voter could exercise his/her right to vote provided there was no legal impediment that would prevent him/her from doing so.

       Any voter could only be registered in one electoral roll and could cast his vote in one of about 14 763 polling stations, usually where such a polling station was set up for the electoral ward according to the place of residence. Any voter could also cast his/her vote anywhere on the territory of the Czech Republic if he/she had asked for, been issued and produced his/her voter pass.

       The ballots were received and assessed and the votes counted first at permanent and separate electoral wards (see Act No. 491/2001 Coll., on Local Elections, as last amended). The application of the one voter - one vote principle was ensured by the procedure in which the voter received one official envelope from the ward election commission for him/her to insert in it one ballot of the party in favour of which he/she wished to cast his/her vote. On the ballot the voter could mark not more than 2 candidates whom he preferred to give vote to. The voter threw the envelope into the ballot box, in front of the ward election committee.

       The preparation and course of the elections were organized, coordinated and supervised by the National Election Committee established in accordance with Act No. 130/2000 Coll., on Regional Elections, as last amended. The law stipulated powers of the individual electoral bodies so that except for the tasks of the ward election committees all organisational and technical preparation of the elections and the processing of election results were ensured by appointed bodies of state administration and self-administration as the exercise of state authority.

       Tables 28-1 and 28-2 present basic information on the number of voters, turnout, total voting results by political parties, political movements and coalitions standing in the elections, and the number of seats they received. Table 28-3 gives the list of the MEPs elected. The percentage of priority votes is calculated from the number of valid votes for the political party, political movement or coalition concerned.

       The sum of the relative figures does not have to equal 100 due to the rounding.