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A new survey conducted by the Factum Invenio agency has suggested a narrowing in voter preference between the country’s two largest parties, the Social and Civic Democrats – four days before Czechs go to the polls. According to the pollster, the Social Democrats would receive 26.3 percent of the vote, while the Civic Democrats would get 22.9. The survey suggested that four other parties could also make into the Chamber of Deputies: the Communists (13.1), the centrist Public Affairs (12.6), the right-wing TOP 09 (10.9), and the Christian Democrats (5.5 percent). According to the survey, the Leftist parties together would not earn a majority in the 200-member Chamber.

Under Czech law, no new polls results will be released after this Monday to prevent the influencing of voters in the final run-up to the election.

With four days still to go before Czechs start voting in elections to the lower house, the last opinion poll has come out. But the political parties and their leaders still hope to sway some of those wavering or undecided voters with final rallies and debates still to come.

Prime Minister Fischer indicated on Sunday that he would be voting for one of the centre-right parties in the upcoming elections. Speaking to Czech television, the interim prime minister said that he preferred practical and polite politics that does not entail throwing around money and that directs social expenditures where they are truly needed. Mr Fischer, who previously served as the head of the Czech Statistical Office, was nominated to his caretaker post by the Civic Democratic Party.

The last public opinion surveys of party preference ahead of next weekend’s parliamentary elections will be released on Monday. Czech law forbids the publication of voter surveys in the run-up to elections so as to avoid any influence on election results. Individuals who violate the polling blackout can face a fine of up to 30,000 crowns, while companies can be fined up to half a million. Exit polling may begin as the last voting centres close on Saturday. At present, polls put the centre-left Social Democratic Party about six points ahead of their closest rivals, the centre-right Civic Democrats, and predict parliamentary mandates for the Communist Party, TOP 09, and Public Affairs, with the Christian Democrats straddling the 5% threshold.

The new centre-right political party TOP 09 has spoken out against a rival campaign that suggests they would welcome a coalition with the Social Democratic Party. Referring to new posters put out by the Civic Democratic Party showing TOP 09 vice-chair Miroslav Kalousek shaking hands with the centre-left Social Democrat leader Jirí Paroubek, TOP 09’s Karel Schwarzenberg called a coalition between the parties unacceptable and guaranteed that as chairman he had the backing of the party to commit to that stance. In related news, Mr Paroubek told the daily Právo on Saturday that no cabinet or deputy ministerial position in a government of his party would be filled by any member of the Communist Party.

The Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes has reported that the Social Democratic Party is preparing a back-up plan if the party wins the upcoming election but is unable to form a coalition government, due to opposition from potential coalition partners to party leader Jiří Paroubek. The Friday edition of the daily writes that it has information the party would be willing to drop Mr Paroubek as a candidate for prime minister if coalition partners pledged to support his bid for the presidency in three year’s time. Mr Paroubek has publically denied any such scenario. Although he has admitted an interest by the Social Democrats to form a coalition with smaller parties, he criticised two of them - TOP 09 and Public Affairs - saying their leaders needed to stop “fantasising about who should be the top Social Democrat”, the daily wrote. Polls have consistently put the Social Democrats on track to win next week’s election.

As elections draw closer, political parties and civic activists are doing their best to encourage people to vote. Brewer Stanislav Bernard, a right-leaning former candidate for the Czech Senate, has come up with his own campaign. He is offering beer to young Czechs in order to encourage them to vote.

Keenly anticipated general elections are being held in the Czech Republic at the end of the next week. Opinion polls suggest the Social Democrats should come first, though what would happen next remains extremely unclear. The leader of their main rivals the Civic Democrats has just poured cold water on the idea of a “grand coalition”, though there are a plethora of other possible post-election permutations.

A separate pre-election poll by the SC&C and STEM agencies of Prague voting intentions showed right-leaning parties the clear favourites. The Civic Democrats came in first with support from 24.5 percent followed by TOP 09 on 21.5 percent. The Social Democrats came third with 17.0 percent, Public Affairs scored 13.5 percent and the Communists 6.0 percent. Of those questioned, 55 percent said they were certain to vote and 24 percent said they were likely to but 20 percent said they were unlikely or definitely would not cast their ballots. Only half of those questioned said they were resolutely decided on which party to back.

Jan Herzmann is a managing partner in one of the top Czech polling agencies, Factum Invenio. While most of the work is marketing surveys for companies, the current workload is spiced up by polls and surveys ahead of lower house elections at the end of next week. I asked Mr. Herzmann about the special characteristics of polling in the Czech Republic and how he came to be in the forefront of moves to re-launch political opinion polls after more than 40 years of Communism.