There were some 24 political groupings vying for attention in the June 2--3 parliamentary elections, the vast majority of which don't merit a footnote in history.

Who can recall in detail the program agenda of the Party of Pensioners for Lifelong Security, for example, which ran in 1998? No one; but few can shake the image of its leader, Eduard Kremlička, eating a live darkling beetle for having failed to reach the 5 percent threshold (they came close, with 3.06 percent).

About half of Czechs eligible to vote do so, or close to 4 million people, and so a party needs only 60,000 ballots to get funding. A May 4--10 poll conducted by Prague-based Factum Invenio found the minor parties together had the support of 10.4 percent of the nation's voters. If a party garners support of at least 1.5 percent, it receives Kč 100 (