Opposition leads in 1st round of Czech Senate election

PRAGUE (AP) — The major opposition party in the Czech Republic appears to be leading in the first round of elections for one-third of the seats in Parliament’s upper house, the Senate. With ballots from more than 95% of ballot stations counted Saturday night, the centrist ANO movement led by former Prime Minister Andrej Babis has the most candidates — 17 — advancing to next week’s runoffs. The Czech Statistics Office says two candidates reached the 50% threshold to win seats outright. The top two finishers in the remaining 25 districts will face each other in the runoffs. The Senate has 81 members in all.