Czech elections once again fail to elect a Romani legislator to the lower house

None of the Romani men and women who ran in the elections to the Czech lower house have succeeded this weekend, as predicted, and none will be seated in the Chamber of Deputies. The most successful candidate from the Romani minority to run was Jiří Lévay, who ran for the ANO movement in the Moravian-Silesian Region in 27th place, winning 913 preferential votes.

“I very much thank all of you who cast your ballots for me. You’re brilliant,” Lévay posted to social media. 

Andrea Kuchtová (SPD) was the second most successful Romani candidate with 414 preferential votes, running in 16th place on the candidate list of Tomio Okamura’s movement in the Ústecký Region. Romani candidate Anna Chválová of the Green Party ran in Prague and scored 386 preferential votes, followed in terms of results by yet another Romani SPD candidate, Ondřej Tancoš, and then another ANO candidate, Marcel Ščuka, who was the fifth most successful Romani candidate.

Ščuka received 226 preferential votes running in 27th place in the South Moravian Region. The remaining three Romani candidates scored results in this order: Jiří Daniel (Czech Social Democratic Party – ČSSD), Emil Voráč (Greens) and Lukáš Mačo (The Left – Levice).