2024 Czech Senate election

This Senate election is the second and last election to the Senate happening during the term of Petr Fiala's cabinet. The parties in the government coalition and their allies will defend 22 out of 27 seats. Opposition parties hold only two seats that are up for election, while three seats up for election are held by independents. Immediately after the 2018 Senate elections, two senators elected as independents joined the Civic Democratic Party and TOP 09 caucus: Ladislav Faktor and Jitka Chalánková. Pavel Fischer remained formally independent. During the 2018–2024 Senate term, one by-election was held in electoral district No. 32 (Teplice) in 2020; Hynek Hanza was elected in the second round. Several unsuccessful candidates in the 2018 and 2023 Czech presidential elections will have their seats up for re-election, including Jiří Drahoš, Pavel Fischer and Marek Hilšer. The term of one member of the Fiala Cabinet, the Minister of Education Mikuláš Bek, is ending; Bek however decided not to stand for re-election. == Electoral system ==

The Senate of the Czech Republic has 81 members elected in 81 single-member constituencies. One third of the seats is contested every two years, and senators serve six-year terms. Senators are elected using a two-round system. A candidate who receives more than 50% of valid votes in the first round is elected. If no candidate reaches that threshold, a second round is held between the two candidates with the highest vote totals, and the candidate with the higher number of votes wins. The minimum age to stand for election is 40, and the voting age is 18. ==Contesting parties==

Similar to the 2022 election, several parties have decided to form more or less formal alliances in some or all seats. Spolu Unlike two years prior, parties of the Spolu alliance have not signed any pre-electoral memorandum and are standing candidates mostly individually. Exception is Jiří Drahoš in Prague, who is supported by all parties in the Fiala government and Leopold Sukovský from Ostravak, whose candidacy is also supported by all three parties. Pirates, SEN 21 and Greens The Czech Pirate Party, SEN 21 and the Green Party agreed to cooperate and support mutually backed candidates in 10 of the 27 constituencies contested in 2024. The parties highlighted incumbent or prospective candidates including Přemysl Rabas (Chomutov) and Lukáš Wagenknecht (Prague 8), and said the Greens would field candidates in districts including Litoměřice and Mladá Boleslav. Composition of contested seats before the elections Most seats up for the election, 13 out of 27, are held by the Spolu aliance, with 10 of these being held by ODS, two by KDU-ČSL and one by TOP 09. STAN lead bloc will defend seven seats and progressive pack composed of Pirates, SEN 21 and the Greens will be incumbent in two districts, with Pirates and SEN 21 defending one seat each The opposition only holds two up the seats up in 2024, including the sole Senate seat held by SOCDEM in Karviná. Three senators elected as independents will have their seats up for re-election, only two of them have chosen to contest the elections. ==Results==

In the first round, 19 of the ANO's candidates to the Senate advanced to the runoff, while two others were elected outright, along with one KDU-ČSL candidate, a TOP 09 candidate, and a member of Social Democracy. Twenty-two seats were to be contested in the second round. At the end of the second round, the ANO won a total of eight seats, the party's strongest showing in a Senate election, while Spolu won 15. Turnout Turnout was 30.47% in the first round and 17.54% in the second round. The highest turnout in the second round was in the Opava electoral district (23.30%), and the lowest was in the Prostějov district (12.15%). ==References==