Leftist party finishing first in Czech election

Two left-wing parties appear to have finished first and third in the Czech Republic's parliamentary election but failed to win enough seats to use their alliance to form a coalition government.

The two-day election, which concluded today, was called to end a political crisis triggered by the center-right government's collapse.

With the votes from 98 percent of the nation's polling stations counted, the Czech Statistics Office said the left-wing Social Democrats won 20.63 percent and the Communists received 15.04 percent.

The new centrist ANO (YES) movement, which campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket, finished second with 18.70 percent. The rest of the votes were won by four other parties.
 

The election was called after Prime Minister Petr Necas' center-right coalition broke down in June amid corruption allegations.