Czech Populist Mogul PM Tipped For Re-election

Prague, Oct 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Oct, 2021 ) :A populist billionaire prime minister at odds with the European Union who featured in the Pandora papers was tipped to win a tight two-day Czech general election wrapping up on Saturday.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis is seeking a second straight victory for his populist ANO party despite his brushes with the law.

The 67-year-old food, chemicals and media mogul is facing police charges over alleged EU subsidy fraud and the bloc's dismay over his conflict of interest as a businessman and a politician.

Last weekend, the Pandora Papers investigation showed he had used money from his offshore firms to finance the purchase of property in southern France in 2009, including a chateau.

He slammed the allegations as a smear campaign, and opinion polls still peg the former communist as the election favourite, with support reaching up to 30 percent.

Voting in the village of Zadni Treban southwest of Prague on Saturday, Jana Selucka said she wanted opposition parties to prevail.

"I saw the extraordinary interest in voting yesterday, which was surprising. People definitely want a change that will make our lives better," she told AFP.

Jan Hovorka from the same village said he expected the vote to "stop the oligarchisation of politics which endangers democracy".

"Politics should be considered a public service paid from public money and not an opportunity to make as much money as possible," he told AFP.

Casting his ballot in the northern town of Lovosice, Babis himself called for "stability for this unstable period".

"We should not change the government now," he said.

Polling stations will close at 1200 GMT, with the results expected later on Saturday.