Information on the principles and manner of voting

Elections to the European Parliament within the territory of the Czech Republic - voting for European Parliament members who will represent the Czech Republic
Friday, 7 June 2024 between 2 PM and 10 PM
Saturday, 8 June 2024 between 8 AM and 2 PM.

  

A voter may be

• a citizen of the Czech Republic who has or will have reached the age of 18 no later than on 8 June 2024,

• a citizen of another EU member state who will have reached the age of 18 no later than on 8 June 2024 and who has or will have registered his/her permanent or temporary residence in the Czech Republic no later than on 24 April 2024.

A voter can vote only if he/she is registered in the electoral roll for the European Parliament (EP) elections and

• whose freedom is not limited due to need to protect their health

• whose legal capacity to exercise his/her right to vote has not been restricted.

The elections will take place only in polling stations within the territory of the Czech Republic.

Application by a citizen of another EU member state to be registered in the electoral roll for the EP elections

• All voters who voted in the Czech Republic in the last EP elections are automatically registered in the electoral roll for these EP elections. Voters should verify this information with their respective municipal authority.

• A voter who did not vote in the Czech Republic in the last EP elections, but who has voted in municipal elections must apply for his/her information to be transferred into the EP elections electoral roll by 28 April 2024.

• A voter who has not voted in any elections in the Czech Republic must apply with his/her respective municipal authority to be registered in the EP elections electoral roll by 28 April 2024.

Polling station addresses

The address of the polling station and other necessary information will be published by each respective mayor on or before 23 May 2024 in the manner typical for each given location. If there several electoral districts in a given municipality, the mayor will inform the voters which part of the municipality and polling station pertains to which electoral district.

  

Authentication process

Every voter must provide evidence of his/her identity and his/her citizenship. A citizen of the Czech Republic may do so by submitting a valid ID, a valid or a diplomatic or a service passport of the Czech Republic and a travel document. A citizen of another EU member state may do so by submitting a permanent residence permit, a passport or an ID.

Any voter who fails to provide evidence of his/her identity and citizenship will not be allowed to vote.

  

Ballots

Ballots are printed separately for each body standing for EP elections. Each ballot will indicate the number of the body standing for the EP elections assigned to them by drawing lots. Ballots provided to voters may not form an uninterrupted sequence of numbers if a particular list of candidates was not registered, even after having been reviewed by a court.  Similarly, the sequential number of a candidate who has been deleted from the list of candidates will remain empty in the ballot.

Information about a candidate’s membership in a political party and/or political movement is indicated with the relevant abbreviation in the ballot; a list of abbreviations is attached to the set of ballots.

  

A candidate’s resignation or removal

Information on any candidate’s resignation, removal and/or the fact that a candidate (a citizen of another EU member state) has been deprived of his/her right to be elected will be published at the polling station. Preferential votes in favour of such candidate will be disregarded.

  

Method of voting

Each voter will receive an empty official envelope from the district election committee bearing an official stamp. Upon request, the election committee can provide a set of ballots.

Each voter must take the official envelope and his/her ballots to the area designated for handling ballots. In that area, the voter will choose the ballot of the body standing for the EP elections that he or she wishes to vote for.

Each voter can give a preferential vote to a maximum of two candidates in the selected ballot. Each voter may so by circling the candidates’ respective number. If a voter circles more than two numbers, no preferential votes will be counted.

All other changes or modifications made to ballots will be disregarded. After that, each voter shall insert their ballot into the official envelope.

When inserting a ballot into the official envelope, the voter must avoid accidentally inserting multiple ballots (e.g. because they are stuck together). Multiple ballots in an official envelope make the vote invalid.

Ballots that are not printed on the prescribed form, have been torn or have not been inserted into the official envelope are also invalid.

  

Voting

Each voter must vote personally; proxy representation is not allowed.  Each voter shall vote by placing the official envelope containing his/her ballot into one of the ballot boxes located in front of the district election committee.

Any voter who is not able to mark his/her ballot or is not able to read or write due to a physical disability may be accompanied by another voter to the space designated for handling ballots (but not by a member of the district election committee), who will mark and insert the ballot into the official envelope, and place the official envelop into a ballot box, if necessary, on behalf of the voter with a physical disability.

Voters who are not registered in any European Parliament elections electoral roll will not be allowed to vote by the district election committee.  This does not apply to voters who vote with a voter’s certificate or who submit confirmation that they have been deleted from a special electoral roll administered by an embassy or confirmation that they have been deleted from the electoral roll for the European Parliament elections in relation to a change of their permanent residence and who prove their right to vote in the given electoral district.

  

Voting with a voter’s certificate

If a voter votes with a voter’s certificate, he or she must submit it to the district electoral committee. He or she will then receive from the district electoral committee an empty official envelope bearing the official stamp and containing a full set of ballots. A voter’s certificate can be used in any electoral district.

  

Casting ballots into a mobile ballot box

Any voter may, due to serious (especially medical) reasons, ask his/her local authority and – on the days of the elections – also the relevant district election committee, to vote outside the polling station into a mobile ballot box. However, the district electoral committee are allowed to send its members with a mobile ballot box only within its respective district.

Information available at the polling stations

Act No. 62/2003 Coll., on Elections to the European Parliament, will be available in the polling stations in Czech, English, French and German. This information will be available in all languages of the EU member states.

Ballot templates and information on typographical errors, if applicable, are available at the polling stations.