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Czech Social Democrats won majority of seats in upper house of parliament

24 October 2010 03:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Czech Social Democrats (CSSD) won the second round of Senate elections Saturday gaining 12 out of the 27 contested seats, which makes the party have a majority of 41 of the total 81 senators in upper house of the Parliament for the first time in modern Czech history, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Only one third of the seats is contested every two years. Center-right Civic Democratic Party (ODS) which dominated Senate in the past years won eight seats only and it will be represented with 25 senators, other mandates go to smaller parties.

Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) with two newly elected and three old senators will become the third strongest party. The election victory gives CSSD a chance to block any changes of the country’s Constitution, to have a say in deploying soldiers in foreign missions and delay adoption of new laws but center-right coalition controlling lower house of parliament can push them through anyway.