Czech election: ANO ahead but coalition talks loom

Czech voters cast ballots over two days Friday and Saturday in a parliamentary election that left the party of former prime minister Andrej Babis clearly ahead in preliminary counts but facing complex coalition talks to secure a governing majority. Polling stations opened Friday afternoon and closed that night, reopening Saturday morning; this was the first national vote in which postal ballots were permitted after a 2024 change to electoral law.

Partial results released as counting progressed showed Babis's ANO party leading by a substantial margin, with figures in early tallies ranging around the high 30s in percentage terms while the incumbent Spolu coalition under Prime Minister Petr Fiala trailed near the low 20s. Opinion polls had predicted an ANO plurality in the lead-up to the vote, but analysts widely expected no single party to win an outright majority in the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies, meaning a period of negotiations to form a government.

Babis, 71, a billionaire who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, campaigned on promises to reverse austerity measures, boost economic growth, cut corporate taxes and halt Czech military assistance to Ukraine. He has...