Statistická ročenka Zlínského kraje 2008

The right to vote had every citizen of the Czech Republic that at least the second day of the elections reached 18 years of age, was on the day of the elections registered for domicile in the municipality belonging to the territorial district of the region and was not prevented from the exercise of the right to vote by a law-stipulated impediment.

Every voter who was not prevented from the exercise of the right to vote by a law-stipulated impediment in the form of service of term of imprisonment or legal disqualification could become a councillor.

Lists of candidates for the regional council elections could be submitted by political parties and political movements registered by the Ministry of the Interior of the CR pursuant to Act No. 424/1991 Sb., as last amended, whose activities were not suspended, and by coalitions thereof. Every political party, political movement or coalition was allowed to submit only one list of candidates for elections to the same regional council. Political parties or political movements submitting lists of candidates of their own could not be members of coalitions. Every political party or political movement could be a member of one coalition only.

Where a political party, political movement or coalition won a minimum of 5% of the total valid votes in a region, it proceeded to the scrutiny in which the preset number of seats was distributed with the help of the d’Hondt method. Votes cast for the other parties were disregarded. The seats won by a party were assigned to individual candidates in the order of rank of the candidates on the ballot. However, if a candidate received priority votes whose number exceeded 10% of that of valid votes for their party in the region, the candidate was placed first on the list for assigning the seats.

Elections to regional councils took place, pursuant to the same decision of the President of the Czech Republic along with the election to the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic pursuant to Act no. 247/1995 Sb., as amended. Pursuant to the same law, the second round of the elections was held a week later, on 24 and 25 October 2008. The elections took place in 27 election districts where electoral term of senators has just expired. The election to the Senate was conducted in single-seat electoral districts by secret ballot according to the principle of the first-past-the-post system and respected universal, equal and direct suffrage as set forth in amendment to the Act.

Every national of the CR aged 18 at least on the day of the elections had the right to vote provided that he/she was not prevented to exercise his/her right to vote by a law-stipulated impediment. The same rule was applied also in the second round of elections. The voter was allowed to vote on the basis of his/her voter pass in any electoral ward on the territory of an election district provided that the electoral ward where the voter was recorded on the permanent electoral roll belonged to the territory of this electoral district. Every voter could be entered on one electoral roll only. Also citizens of the Czech Republic who had not their permanent residence in the country and came to a polling station in the CR in electoral districts where elections were held.

Every national of the CR could be elected a senator provided that he/she reached the age of 40 at least on the second day of the elections and was not deprived of legal capacity. Candidates for election to the Senate could have been put up by registered political parties and political movements or their coalitions, the application could have been submitted also by an independent candidate himself.

In the first round of elections only one senator – a candidate for the Karviná electoral district - was elected. In other electoral districts the second round of elections was held a week later. In the second round only two candidates who won the biggest number of valid votes in the first round stood for elections. The candidate who won majority of valid votes in the second round was elected senator.

The complete election results to local councils and to the Senate can be found on www.volby.cz and in related publications published by the CZSO according to the Catalogue of Publications.