At stake in this election:

• 27 seats in the Senate (Senat)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Vaclav KLAUS
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Mirek TOPOLANEK
• Assembly: Czech Republic has a bicameral Parliament (Parlament) consisting of the Senate (Senat) with 81 seats and the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecka Snemovna) with 200 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by parliament to serve a 5-year term.
• In the Senate (Senat) 81 members are elected by absolute majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 6-year terms*. In the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecka Snemovna) 200 members are elected by party-list system with proportional distribution of seats to serve 4-year terms.**

* One third of the Senate is renewed every two years. A run-off election will be held on October 24-25 in constituencies in which no candidate obtained an absolute majority of votes.

** A threshold of 5% is required in order for a party to enter the Chamber of Deputies.

Main parties in the Second Round of the electoral race:

• Party: Civic Democratic Party / Ob

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 10,384,603 (2008)
• Registered Voters: 2,852,506 (2008)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 5,303,781 (2008)

·         Is Czech Republic a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Czech Republic ratified CEDAW: Yes, succession (22 February 1993)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 31 (Chamber of Deputies); 6 (Senate) (following the 2006 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 28 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Very Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Czech Republic a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has Czech Republic ratified CRPD: Yes (28 September 2009)

·         Population with a disability: 1,557,690 (est.)