Abstract
After the October 2021 elections to the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic, the most discussed topic has been preferential voting due to the surprising results for the coalition of the Czech Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independents. This fact led us to pursue a comprehensive analysis of preferential voting in the Czech Republic.
Taking a broad perspective, this study of the Czech Republic explores the mechanisms of preferential voting in flexible-party lists. Preferential voting is analysed at the party-electorate level.
This article proves that a flexible-party list system can have significantly different results compared to other systems in accordance with the number of votes per voter and the threshold for candidates. It also finds evidence that sub-party competition is significantly higher for coalitions where the degree of preferential voting is higher.
The ideological stance of a political party does not play a role in the use of preferential votes.