PRAGUE: Social Democrats edged out a new populist party to win early elections in the Czech Republic on Saturday as voters angered by years of right-wing graft and austerity veered left, nearly full results showed.

The Social Democrats (CSSD) scored 20.56 percent, the billionaire-led populist newcomer ANO party surprised with 18.68 percent while the Communists lagged behind with 14.99 percent, with 98.89 percent of votes counted.

“The result may not be what we imagined but it’s the highest score of all parties,” Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka told reporters in Prague, adding that he was “ready to start talks” on a coalition with all parties in parliament.

But billionaire Andrej Babis said his ANO party “definitely won’t support a leftist cabinet. We won’t support a cabinet comprising the CSSD.” Tipped as the new premier, the 42-year-old Sobotka hinted earlier that he could form a minority government with the tacit support of the Communists.

Analysts said Saturday that the fragmented outcome presents no clear perspective for a stable majority government.

Coalition governments lacking comfortable majorities are the norm on the Czech political scene, with smaller parties or independent MPs often wooed for support.

“Every single lawmaker could matter, but I think the Social Democrats will have to glue together a very colorful coalition or strike a deal with ANO,” Josef Mlejnek, a political analyst at Prague’s Charles University, told AFP.

Communist leader Vojtech Filip said Saturday he was open to talks with all players, but the party’s name remains toxic two decades after the former Czechoslovakia shed totalitarian rule, and the Social Democrats remain the only party willing to work with it. The ballot caps months of political turmoil set off by a spy and bribery scandal that brought down the center-right government of Petr Necas in June.

Voters already swung left in January, electing former Communist Milos Zeman as president after a decade under the right wing and euroskeptic Vaclav Klaus.

Right-wing parties disgraced by Necas’s fall from favor fared poorly Saturday but all managed to jump a five percent hurdle to enter parliament.