Regional elections 2016

Regional elections in the Czech Republic show several consistent characteristics: low voter turnout, dominance by national parties, and a significant accumulation of mandates at the regional level. All these features were maintained in the 2016 elections. However, they brought a new development in at least one aspect. While in the past, one of the central opposition parties would celebrate victory, these elections were won by a member of the governing coalition. Support for the remaining government members either stagnated or began to fall sharply. The results of the 2016 regional elections thus indicated, to some extent, the future trend of support for individual parties in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, which took place a year later. The book is based on the logic of the regional structure of the Czech Republic, with individual chapters providing an analysis of the electoral competition in each region. The authors focus on examining and interpreting voter turnout levels, the degree of support for individual candidate lists, the phenomenon of accumulated mandates, election manifestos, and the communication of candidates for regional governor on Facebook.