Legislation on new municipal elections varies significantly across Europe. In some countries, the situation is solved in such a way that if there is no alternate for the vacant mandate, the mandate remains vacant and new elections for the whole council are held only in a situation where it is no longer possible to manage the municipality due to a decrease in council members.
There are also states in which only vacant seats are filled in new elections. The absence of legislative regulation of the institute of new elections in electoral laws is no exception.
Legislative rules for holding new elections in the Czech Republic are different from those in European countries, and perhaps because of them the number of municipalities where new elections are held repeatedly is constantly growing. The aim of this article is to provide comprehensive information on the legislative regulation of new elections in selected European countries and at the same time to bring closer the contrast between the legislative settings of selected European countries with regard to other factors.