Preferential voting in the elections to the House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in 2010 in comparison with elections in 2002 and 2006

There was a record-breaking gain of seats that was based on preference votes in the 2010 election to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The aim of my diploma thesis is to determine whether the reason for the above was a more active and effective utilization of the voters' preference votes, or it was a result of the different rules for the preferential voting. The clarification of the reasons is based on the analyses of the quantity of used preference votes from the voters' side, their active participation, and the ability to accumulate votes for several selected candidates. The thesis compares the results of the last election and elections in 2002 and 2006 and explores the differences that had happened in the course of these three elections. The thesis is also focused on models of voting behavior. It monitors which characteristics represent the voters who give the preference votes, and on the contrary, which candidates' characteristics are important for these voters and which are irrelevant