Is TOP09, a Czech political party and a junior government coalition member, trying to introduce absentee voting in the Czech Republic to win the next general election and remain in power? No, that's not true: TOP09 first proposed this in 2015 when the party was not part of the government. Even if the system is introduced, its impact on the results of the next parliamentary elections in 2025 can not be predicted.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on November 6, 2023. The text overlay (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff) read:
Only those who are afraid of losing are trying to introduce absentee voting. Everyone else would not even think of it.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Nov 15 08:01:27 2023 UTC)
The video shows a screenshot of a post on X (archived here) from the account of Lukáš Pollert, a Czech former Olympic medalist and doctor, known for his controversial views.
The Czech political party TOP09 first proposed the introduction of absentee voting -- which would streamline the voting process for Czechs living abroad and is already available in many countries -- in 2015, when the party was in opposition. The current government, which TOP09 is a junior coalition member of, lists absentee voting among its priorities on the cabinet's platform. The party previously tried to push absentee voting through parliament in January 2022, but the vote was blocked by the opposition populist party SPD. Markéta Pekarová Adamová, the head of TOP09, predicted in October 2023 that the party would manage to push the measure through parliament before the next general election in 2025.
Absentee voting, or voting by mail, is a legitimate method of delivering, or receiving, ballots by mail as opposed to voting in person at designated polling places. It is available on demand to certain individuals, such as citizens living abroad, in most European Union member states, such as Germany; the United Kingdom, the U.S., and Australia. Czechs living abroad often have traveled thousands of kilometers to the country´s embassies and faced other obstacles to be able to cast their ballots.
While most Czechs abroad voted for the current government's coalition parties in 2021, it is impossible to say what effect the introduction of postal voting would have on the electorate in the next elections in 2025. There is no evidence that it would help the TOP09 party remain in power, as the TikTok video claims. The measure has been criticized by opposition parties SPD and ANO.
