Czech voters barred from Senate vote over registration abroad

At the Senate elections in Czechia, some voters were unable to vote in their home districts because they were still on the special list of voters abroad. According to Seznam Zprávy, this affected people who had previously voted by post or at a polling station at an embassy and had not asked to be removed from the list.

They voted from abroad — and fell into a trap

Nikola Yurzhitsova from the Vyškov district said she voted in the presidential election with a voter card, and in 2025 voted in the Chamber of Deputies election from the Netherlands. This time she was allowed to vote only in the local government election, but not for a senator. For the Senate she would have needed a voter card, even at the polling station in the school behind her house. “Unfortunately, nobody warned me that I had to be removed from the list again,” she says.

She is not alone. Aleš, who voted by post from Germany a year ago, filed a request at the consulate to be removed from the list in Czechia, as instructed. On Friday the election commission told him he could not vote in his district. Another voter, who voted from Switzerland a year ago, wrote on social media that she is still being held in the system and was therefore not allowed to vote in the Senate election.

What the Interior Ministry says

Registration on the special list of voters abroad is indefinite: it remains in force until the voter asks for it to be cancelled, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded. That is why such people can vote in municipal elections but not in Senate elections. Some Czech embassies had warned about this in advance.

Interior Ministry spokesman Adam Retsler explained to Seznam Zprávy that the purpose of the rule is to prevent double voting. A voter on the foreign list can obtain a voter card at a consulate and vote elsewhere in Czechia, and the commission in their home district would not know about it. The same principle applies to elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the European Parliament and presidential elections.

You can be removed from the list through the Citizen Portal, through your data box (datová schránka) or in writing. Current legislation already provides for simplifying the procedure: in the future there will be a single voter register where everyone can check online where they are registered and change the entry if necessary.

Read also: Датова схранка в Чехии 2026: что это, кому обязательна и как не влететь на штраф

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz