World News | Ruling Party Narrowly Loses Czech Vote; PM Babis May Be out

Prague, Oct 9 (AP) Prime Minister Andrej Babis' centrist party on Saturday narrowly lost the Czech Republic's parliamentary election, a surprise development that could mean the end of the populist billionaire's reign in power.

The two-day election to fill 200 seats in the lower house of the Czech Republic's parliament took place shortly after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported details of Babis' overseas financial dealings in a project dubbed the “Pandora Papers”. Babis, 67, has denied wrongdoing.

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With the votes from 99.7% of the ballot stations counted, the Czech Statistics Office said Together, a liberal-conservative three-party coalition, captured 27.7% of the vote, beating Babis' ANO (Yes) party, which won 27.2%.

In another blow to the country's populists, another center-left liberal coalition of the Pirate Party and STAN, a group of mayors, received 15.5% of the vote to finish third, the statistics office reported.

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The two coalitions have enough support together to create a new government. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)