In a tenth of municipalities they have neither a kindergarten nor competitive elections. We know the future councils of 1 052 municipalities weeks before the election
A short data piece published a few days before the 2026 Czech municipal elections, built on the registered candidate lists for all 6 258 municipalities. The paradox it opens with is that Czechs run for local office more than anyone else in Europe – roughly 190 000 candidates for more than 60 000 council seats, one in every 46 adults – and yet in a large share of municipalities the election is decided before a single ballot is cast.
In 1 052 municipalities the number of candidates exactly matches the number of seats, so the composition of the council is already known. In a further 899 there is a single list with more candidates than seats, which leaves voters some say over the order but none over who governs. Together that is 1 951 municipalities, about 31 % of the total, with non-competitive elections. The number of people living in such municipalities has more than doubled since 2010, from 330 000 to over 760 000. The problem is overwhelmingly one of size: 55 % of municipalities with up to 200 residents and 39 % of those with 200–499 residents have no real contest, while among municipalities over 5 000 residents there is exactly one – Chýně near Prague, for the second election running. The piece also points to the weak incentives for candidates: the statutory ceiling for an unpaid mayor in 2026 is 34 955 CZK a month in municipalities under 300 residents, ordinary councillors in small municipalities can get at most 1 734 CZK, and in 2017 only 24 of the municipalities with up to 150 residents had a single full-time councillor against 848 that had none. Following Školník and Haman (2021), each full-time councillor is associated with about 0.25 more candidates per seat once municipality size is controlled for.
The second half of the article connects this to what municipalities actually do. Only 3 545 municipalities (55 %) run a kindergarten, even though every municipality is now obliged to guarantee a place for its children, and nearly half therefore depend on neighbours over whom they have no democratic control. Roughly a tenth of municipalities have neither a kindergarten nor a meaningful choice at the ballot box – the quadrant the headline refers to – against 48 % that have both. The argument is that when a council has little to decide, there is little reason to run for it. The piece closes with the policy direction PAQ has been developing: reform the tax-allocation system (RUD) so it favours the larger municipalities that serve their surroundings, have the state co-fund the one-off costs of voluntary mergers, and move paperwork and shared agendas such as school administration to the inter-municipal level through the společenství obcí institute, as in France – which would also give small municipalities a voice and secure places for all children. Forced mergers are explicitly rejected as neither desirable nor feasible.
I am the sole author of this piece.
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