Pictured: Olomouc (illustrative photo)
Pictured: Olomouc (illustrative photo)Photo: Dominik.Tefert, 2009 · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The MILUJEME OLOMOUC coalition (the Czech Pirate Party, TOP 09 and the Greens) has decided to file a court complaint over the municipal election results in Olomouc because of an apparent error in the recording of results in precinct 59. After correction, one of its three seats on the 45-member council would go to the Czech Pirate Party instead of TOP 09, though the coalition's overall number of seats and the balance of power on the council would not change.[1][2]

Error in Precinct 59

In precinct 59, the coalition's candidates each received around 20 votes, while one TOP 09 candidate received 221. Since 240 ballot envelopes were cast in the precinct, about 92 percent of voters would have had to vote for her. This vote count moved the candidate up the coalition's internal order at the expense of Pirate candidate Roman Koutek: she ended up with a total of 2,560 votes, Koutek with 2,523.[1]

Reactions

Koutek said the discrepancy was apparently an administrative error made when the election commission transcribed the results, and that a court complaint is being planned. Mikuláš Ferjenčík, assistant to Pirate Party chairman Zdeněk Hřib, said they had consulted the matter with the statistical office and that turning to the court was the only option.[1]

The lead candidate Lucie Tungul (TOP 09) said the whole coalition would file the complaint to remove any doubt, and that the party does not wish to gain seats because of errors. According to iDNES.cz, the coalition will ask the court to recount the results in the precinct in order to publicly demonstrate that the error occurred in the recording of results. An alternative would be for the affected councilwoman to resign.[1][2]

Related: 2026 Municipal Elections in Olomouc.

Original Distribution of the Coalition's Seats

According to iDNES.cz, all three of the MILUJEME OLOMOUC coalition's seats originally went to TOP 09 nominees, even though the Czech Pirate Party held the second and third positions on the ballot. One of them was Aleš Jakubec, who moved up into the council from sixth place thanks to preferential votes. Jakubec previously served as deputy mayor and had not sat on the Olomouc council for the past eight years.[2]

After the results were tallied, Jakubec said he regretted that preferential votes had pushed the Czech Pirate Party out, and that he believed the coalition's cooperation would continue.[2]

Related entries: Olomouc, Czech Pirate Party, TOP 09

Surrender of Mandate and Withdrawal of the Court Petition

On 15 October 2026, TOP 09 candidate for the Milujeme Olomouc grouping Marta Pečinková Perůtková gave up her council seat. The grouping considers her preferential votes in precinct no. 59 to have been incorrectly transcribed: according to it, 221 preferential votes out of 240 cast envelopes were recorded for her there, while the grouping's other candidates each received roughly 20 votes. According to iDNES.cz, the likely error was flagged by an analysis of the results carried out by a Czech Pirate Party member.[3][4]

Pečinková Perůtková received a total of 2,560 votes, 37 more than the fourth-placed Roman Koutek (Czech Pirate Party) with 2,523 votes. After subtracting the apparently incorrectly recorded votes, Koutek moved up to third place, which carries a seat, meaning the seat will go to the Czech Pirate Party. The grouping's total of three seats remains unchanged.[4]

Pečinková Perůtková said she did not want to hold a seat obtained because of a typo in the record. The grouping had originally considered filing a court petition but abandoned the plan. According to lead candidate Lucie Tungul (TOP 09), court proceedings would have delayed the council's inaugural session and the election of the city's new leadership by several weeks.[3][4]

Milujeme Olomouc is expected to be part of a coalition being assembled by STAN together with the ProOlomouc and spOLečně movements and with KDU-ČSL. The post of mayor is to go to STAN leader Marek Zelenka, and the coalition is expected to hold 25 of the 45 seats. ANO, ODS and SPD are headed for the opposition.[3][4]

Chronology

  • — A TOP 09 candidate from the Milujeme Olomouc group gave up her seat on the Olomouc council because the group regards her preferential votes in one polling district as wrongly transcribed; the seat will therefore go to the Pirates and the group will not file a petition with the court. iDNES.cz Deník: Olomoucký kraj
  • — The MILUJEME OLOMOUC coalition decided to file a court complaint over the municipal election because of an apparent error in recording results in polling district 59 in Olomouc, the correction of which would give a Pirates candidate the council seat instead of a TOP 09 candidate. Hanácká Drbna iDNES.cz

Sources

  1. Hanácká Drbna — 13 October 2026
  2. iDNES.cz — 13 October 2026
  3. iDNES.cz — 15 October 2026
  4. Deník: Olomoucký kraj