FACTBOX-Czech Senate and municipal vote a litmus test

    PRAGUE, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Czechs will elect a third of the 
Senate this month in an election seen as a litmus test for 
possible early polls for the lower house, which has been 
deadlocked following a June general election. 
    The following are key points of the Senate vote: 
     
    PROCESS: 
    * Voting takes place in two rounds on Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 
27-28. Polling stations are opened from 2 pm to 10 pm (1200-2000 
GMT) on Friday and 8 am to 2 pm on Saturday. 
    * Twenty-seven, or one-third of the 81 Senate seats, are 
contested every two years. The mandate in each constituency is 
for 6 years. 
    * The election is held under the first-past-the-post system. 
    * If no candidate wins more than 50 percent in the first 
round, the two top candidates contest a run-off one week later. 
    * Turnout is usually very low -- 29 and 18.4 percent 
respectively in the two rounds in the last election in 2004. The 
polling agency STEM predicted 56 percent of Czechs intended to 
vote this time, although half of them were not aware if voting 
would take place in their constituency. 
     
    WHAT IS AT STAKE 
    * Opinion polls give the right-wing Civic Democrats an up to 
9 percentage point lead over the leftist Social Democrats, but 
the voting system for the Senate makes predicting any results 
tough. 
    * The right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS), who narrowly won the 
June lower house election, are defending 9 seats. 
    * The left wing Social Democrats are defending just one 
seat. 
    * Most of the other contested seats were won in 2000 by the 
Four-Coalition, a now-defunct centre-right grouping which 
includes the centrist Christian Democrats. The Christian 
Democrats are thus defending 7 seats, including one vacated 
since June. 
    * Total strength of individual factions: 
    Civic Democrats                        37 
    Social Democrats                        7 
    Christian Democrats                    13 
    Open Democracy Club                    13 
    Association of Independent  Candidates  7 
    Non-aligned (incl. 2 Communists)        3 
    Vacant seats                            1 
    * The Senate, alongside with the lower house, elects the 
president. The election results will thus gauge support for 
current President Vaclav Klaus, former Civic Democrat chairman, 
who will seek re-election in 2008. 
    * The Senate would also show the chances of any potential 
constitutional changes which require a three-fifths majority in 
both houses of parliament. The two biggest parties, the Civic 
and Social Democrats, have a comfortable constitutional majority 
in the lower house but only 44 out of the 81 Senate seats. 
    The two parties have at times mulled changing the 
proportional lower house voting system more towards a 
first-past-the post one, which would benefit large parties over 
small ones, although the Civic Democrats have lately rejected 
such change which would damage their small centrist partner 
parties. 
 ((Reporting by Jan Lopatka, editing by Giles Elgood; 
prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: 
jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 190 474)) 
  Keywords: CZECH SENATE