The only near certainty is that the Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) and upstart Green Party (SZ) will get past the five percent threshold of support and act as kingmakers, as both these small parties are so ... centered. The former are more conservative, the latter more liberal, but both are prone to shift with the spirit of the times.

Aside from that, political analysts can see only one vision in their crystal balls: After the election, only the most familiar of faces, those we see night after night on our TV screens, will remain in the limelight. The center-right Freedom Union (US-DEU) will fade away, as shall those faces chiefly known only to the species homo senatorius. So it is written.

Who shall disappear?

Alena Páralová of ODS, a hard-working expert in social affairs whose name appears in the depths of the party's ballot, won't be returning to Parliament after the June elections. Perhaps her hard work was the reason -- many colleagues would fare poorly by direct comparison. She also isn't known to be a favorite of ODS Chairman Mirek Topolánek.

Zuzka Rujbrová -- one of only three women to chair a committee, and the only Communist (KSČM) to head a petitions committee -- will be in search of work come the summer, as will former UN General Assembly President Jan Kavan (ČSSD), as he's far too independent and free in expressing his dissent. The legendary principal author of the Czechoslovak Constitution, the doyen of the Parliament, Zdeněk Jičínský, will also go.

The departures of media expert Eva Nováková and champion of equal opportunities for women Anna Čurdová will mean even fewer women in Parliament.

In their places will be fewer regional vice governors, and more unknowns from the provincial party secretariats. But there are some complete unknowns, like Richard Dolejš (ČSSD, Central Bohemia), a cook who remains loyal to a ghost of his own -- that of former party chairman and ex-Prime Minister Stanislav Gross.

The ODS roster is much the same, with those who have proven themselves on the local level now given a chance to go national. KDU-ČSL is less concerned with the roster, as their support base, though small, is loyal, much like that of the KSČM.

The Greens have the most colorful ballot, to put it politely. There's Chairman Martin Bursík, who has been a member of four other parties; columnist and former Human Rights Commissioner Petr Uhl; anti-nuclear campaigner Dana Kuchtová; and the seemingly anti-everything goat breeder Stanislav Penc.

It's projected that more than half of the faces in the halls of Parliament will be new ones; it will take most of them a year to get a feel for how the institution really works, and to come to grips with the political zeitgeist.

Irena Ryšánková is a parliamentary analyst for public broadcaster Česká televize