Google has launched a website in the Czech Republic that monitors electoral trends ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. The website shows in real-time how people on Google search for political parties, their leaders, and other terms related to the October elections. The most googled party leader is currently the chairman of ANO, Andrej Babiš, followed by the head of the Pirates, Ivan Bartoš.
The high proportion of people searching for Babiš last week may be related not only to the start of the ANO movement election campaign but also to the fact that his son, Andrej Babiš Jr., accompanied by director Vít Klusák, confronted the prime minister during the event about their complicated relationship.
The site, which draws current data from Google Search in the Czech Republic, shows in clear graphs and animations who is the most popular when it comes to Internet searching. Users can find out how interest in the election as such is changing, which politician or party had the largest share of searches in the past week, which parties trend in individual regions, or what information people search for most in connection with the election.
By far the largest, namely 70 percent search share for the past week is currently held by Babiš, 13 percent belongs to the head of Pirates Ivan Bartoš, and in third place with 11 percent is Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) chairman Tomio Okamura. Another 3 percent belongs to the chairman of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) Petr Fiala and another 3 percent to the chairman of the Social Democrats Jan Hamáček.
Pirates are the most popular among parties in the search
The most popular political party in the search is the Pirate Party, which leads in all regions except the Pardubice, Hradec Králové, and Karlovy Vary regions, where the greatest interest is in the SPD. The data show that Praguers are most interested in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. People most often ask when they should take place, who would win or how to vote outside their permanent residence.
“Search trends are sometimes called the spirit of the times because they illustrate what is moving with the society. Logically, the upcoming elections are reflected in them. For example, people find out when elections are being held or who is running. However, data from Internet searches can certainly not be confused with data from traditional election polls,“ warned the company’s spokeswoman Alžběta Houzarová.
Most searches in the Czech Republic take place on Google. According to statistics, its search engine has the largest share, roughly four-fifths. The following is Seznam.cz that has been strengthening in recent months.
Title image: Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis arrives for a meeting of the Bled Strategic Forum at the Bled Festival Hall in Bled, Slovenia, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. The Bled Strategic Forum gathers participants from various fields to discuss solutions to present and future challenges. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
