(Repeats story published early on Monday
* Czech rightists score win ahead of national election
* Low turnout skews results, national race remains wide open
By Jan Lopatka
PRAGUE, June 8 (Reuters) - Czech Republic's right-wing Civic
Democrats scored a strong victory over their main leftist rivals
in the European Parliament election but low turnout offered no
clear clues on the likely outcome of national polls in October.
With 99.5 percent of votes counted from tallying that began
on Sunday, the Civic Democrats, led by former Prime Minister
Mirek Topolanek, took 31.4 percent of the vote for an unexpected
nine-percentage-point win over the leftist Social Democrats.
That would likely give the party nine of the central
European country's 22 European Parliament seats.
This was a big rebound from the drubbing rightists took in
regional polls last autumn. Their cabinet collapsed in a
no-confidence vote in March, throwing the country into chaos
midway through its six-month term as EU president.
"At the very least this means that we are in the game, which
is good news after the massacre in the autumn," Topolanek said
after partial results were released.
The political crisis after the cabinet collapse was settled
by the formation of a non-partisan caretaker cabinet and an
agreement among the biggest parties to hold an early election.
The interim cabinet won confidence in parliament earlier on
Sunday.
The government formed after the autumn election will have to
tackle the impacts of the global financial crisis which slashed
the central European country's economic output by 3.4 percent in
the first quarter and boosted the budget gap.
The Social Democrats led opinion polls when they overthrew
Topolanek's cabinet in a confidence vote but the right-wingers
have since caught up to take the European polls.
Some political analysts said voters disliked the toppling of
the cabinet during the EU presidency, which irked European
partners who lamented a lack of leadership in Europe.
But the Civic Democrats' victory in the European polls did
not show a clear path toward their win in the national election,
as turnout of a mere 28 percent of the electorate skewed the
results.
Analysts have said the Civic Democrats have a more
disciplined voter base than the leftists.
"For our voters, the European Parliament election is of
third-grade importance," Social Democrat chief Jiri Paroubek
said, adding he believed he would win the October election.
The Green Party, allies of the Civic Democrats in the past
cabinet, failed to clear the five-percent hurdle to win seats,
which raised questions over how they will fare in the autumn.
A solid showing by the far-left Communists, who got 14.2
percent, also indicated that Topolanek may fall short of
coalition allies after the October vote even if his party wins
the most votes.
This could put the Social Democrats in the position of
king-makers even if they come in second.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)
