PRAGUE – Czechs began voting on Friday in a tight parliamentary election in which Prime Minister Andrej Babis hopes to win a second term despite criticism that he mismanaged the pandemic, ran up heavy debts and mixed business interests with those of his country, Reuters reported.
The two-day election kicked off at 2 pm local time (12:00 GMT) and runs until 2 pm on Saturday.
Babis’s centrist ANO party remains ahead in opinion polls but its lead has narrowed in recent weeks to just a couple of percentage points over the two opposition groups who have pledged to work together to oust him. Babis has vowed to continue raising public sector wages and pensions, policies that have benefited his main support bases.
His spending policies, which he has stuck with despite a broad recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, mark a break from traditional Czech fiscal prudence, and the country’s debt is set to grow among the fastest growing in Europe, albeit from a low base.
The centre-right Together coalition and the progressive Pirates/Mayors have refused to work with the billionaire Babis over what they say are unacceptable conflicts of interest. He is the founder of the Agrofert food, farming, chemicals and media empire, which employs more than 30,000 people in central Europe.
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