The Czech Republic is located in Central Europe and is bordered by Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia. It has an area of 78,866 square kilometres. Its capital city is Prague.

The Czech Republic had a population of 10,246,178 in July 2004 with an estimated growth rate of -0.05%. Czech is the national language. The main religion is Roman Catholic.

The climate is temperate with cool summers and cold, cloudy and humid winters. The terrain in the west consists of rolling plains, hills and plateaus surrounded by low mountains. The east is very hilly. Czech’s natural resources include hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite and timber.

The Czech Republic gained independence in 1993 when Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is now governed as a parliamentary democracy.

As one of the most stable and prosperous of the post-Communist states, the Czech Republic has been recovering from recession since mid-1999. The Czech economy relies heavily on the service industry, which accounts for 60% of the workforce with only 5% employed in agriculture. Czech industrial products include metallurgy, machinery equipment, motor vehicles, glass and armaments. The currency unit is the Czech koruna.

There is no specific franchise law in the Czech Republic.