Czech billionaire and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s populist ANO party had a wide lead in a parliamentary election on Saturday, after nearly 50 per cent of voting districts had reported, statistics office data showed.

ANO had 38.3 per cent of votes, ahead of Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s centre-right Spolu group with 20.3 per cent. Six parties were above the 5 per cent threshold to win seats in the 200-member lower house, according to the partial results.

The ANO party took a wide early lead in the country’s parliamentary election on Saturday, according to partial results after 10 per cent of voting districts had been counted.

Early results tend to be from smaller districts where in the past ANO and other opposition parties have been stronger, while Spolu fares better in bigger cities that take longer to be counted.

If Babis, a former Prime Minister, wins enough to form a government, he would strengthen the populist, anti-immigration camp in Europe and reduce Czech support for Ukraine.

Babis is an ally of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban and teamed up with a number of far-right parties in the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament to challenge the mainstream direction of Europe’s polices, including decarbonisation.

Babis, who led a centre-left cabinet in 2017-2021, has said he aimed for a one-party government.

The results so far show ANO would fall short of a majority, so the key to forming a government will be how other parties fare.

ANO has ruled out an agreement with the current ruling parties and the liberal Pirates, which were in government until last year.

That means he may have to turn for support to the Motorists party, which opposes the European Union’s phase-out of combustion cars, but possibly also the far-right SPD, or the far-left Stacilo!, which stood below the 5 per cent threshold to enter parliament in the early partial results.

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