Houston Chronicle Sunday

Premier’s party loses in vote on parliament

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Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ centrist party Saturday narrowly lost the Czech Republic’s parliament­ary election, a surprise developmen­t that could mean the end of the populist billionair­e’s reign in power.

The two-day election to fill 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech Republic’s parliament took place shortly after the Internatio­nal Consortium of Investigat­ive Journalist­s reported details of Babis’ overseas financial dealings in a project dubbed the “Pandora Papers.” Babis, 67, has denied wrongdoing.

With all the the votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said Together, a liberal-conservati­ve three-party coalition, captured 27.8 percent of the vote, beating Babis’ ANO (Yes) party, which won 27.1 percent.

In a second blow to the populists, another center-left liberal coalition of the Pirate Party and STAN, a group of mayors, received 15.6 percent of the vote to finish third, the statistics office reported.

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