🏛️ How to run a pre-election candidate debate in a small town

Czech municipal elections take place on 9 and 10 October 2026. TV stations are preparing debates between mayoral candidates in regional capitals and large cities. Nobody will come to a town of eight thousand people. If the candidates there are to speak side by side, someone local has to organise it: an association, a local newspaper, a school, the town hall or the admin of the Facebook group that half the town reads.

I have put together the tools you can use to do it, including options that cost nothing.

How to choose

Before you look at the table, answer three questions:

• Should the time and the speaking order be kept by software or by a moderator? If by software, only the first group in the table is left.
• Should the debate go out publicly, on Facebook or YouTube, or is a hall or a private room enough?
• Do you need a recording that people can still refer to after the election?

The table

As of 17 September 2026, based on the official websites. The tools are sorted by category and by how well they suit a pre-election debate between candidates in a small town. It is not a general ranking: for a different job, such as regular broadcasts of council meetings, the order would come out differently.

US dollar prices exclude tax and are monthly or yearly, as the vendor lists them. FairStream prices include Czech VAT and are per debate. FairStream and PublicStream are Czech services priced in Czech crowns (CZK); CZK 25 is roughly EUR 1.

Why FairStream sits at the top of the first group: in this overview it is the only tool for which the official sources document everything at once, namely automatic timekeeping and speaking order, public streaming to both Facebook and YouTube, recording, a Czech-language interface and a price per debate. The SuperDebate website does not list its streaming destinations, The Debate Network prohibits both recording and public debates, and Debatable does not stream out. As a reminder, FairStream is developed by my company; I describe its limitations below.

Sources: StreamYard, Restream, Zoom Webinars, PublicStream (in Czech), SuperDebate, The Debate Network, Debatable, XTimer, FairStream, election dates, Czech Ministry of the Interior (in Czech).

Four situations and what to use

You have no budget but you have a hall. A phone on a tripod, a free debate timer and a moderator who is not afraid to interrupt. This has worked for decades and will keep working. It has just one weakness: only the people who show up will see it, and next time nobody will know who promised what.

You want people on Facebook to see it. OBS with YouTube or Facebook Live costs nothing, and anyone who has streamed before can handle it. If you do not want to install anything, StreamYard or Restream can do it from the browser on their free plans, with their logo on screen. Restream can stream to Facebook and YouTube at the same time for free (two channels); StreamYard needs a paid plan for that. Fairness is still up to the moderator alone.

You want nobody to be able to argue about time. Here the choice narrows to a few tools that control the microphones themselves. SuperDebate has a shared timer for everyone and you can start for free, but it is in English and built for debate clubs. The Debate Network controls both the microphones and the time, but deliberately prohibits recording and public debates to protect participants' privacy, so it does not suit a pre-election debate. FairStream keeps the time and the speaking order, streams to Facebook and YouTube and makes a recording. One debate can have up to ten people, including the organiser.

You are a municipality and want to broadcast council meetings regularly. Take a look at PublicStream. It has been broadcasting since 2008, its references include Olomouc, Pardubice, Plzeň, Karlovy Vary and Prague city districts, and it offers an archive and a link to the voting system. Its price list is public and it broadcasts the first meeting free as a demo. But it is a service for council meetings, not a tool for a pre-election debate.

Three things that matter more than the tool

How many candidates you invite. This is the most underestimated decision. With two, you can have a debate. With eight, it becomes a series of short statements: at one minute per answer, a single round takes about ten minutes including the handovers. Decide in advance how many topics there will be and how much time each answer gets, and tell the candidates. For a free FairStream debate, which is limited to 30 minutes, that means two or three topics with eight candidates.

Whether a recording remains. A debate without a recording ends the moment the lights go out. With a recording, people can still point to a promise after the election. Download the recording and keep your own copy, though. Services often keep it only for a limited time; FairStream keeps it for seven days.

Who moderates. A tool can give and take the floor. It cannot ask a follow-up question when a candidate dodges. That takes a person, and that person should not be a candidate.

What FairStream can and cannot do

Since it is our product, I describe it separately and specifically.

• The server measures the time. When it runs out, the speaker's microphone is muted and the next speaker gets the floor. The organiser cannot give one candidate extra time.
• A moderator voice reads the question, announces the round and hands over the floor. The speaker's time does not run while they are being introduced.
• Candidates join through the link in their invitation, with no account and nothing to install. They need a computer or phone with a camera, a microphone and an internet connection.
• A dry run is free, needs no booked slot and no card. It lasts at most 20 minutes, is not streamed and produces no recording.
• A free debate (Flex) lasts at most 30 minutes. Slots open 7 days in advance and are not guaranteed. The recording can be downloaded; a transcript and AI summary are not included.
• The paid Guaranteed Slot costs CZK 190 including VAT (roughly EUR 8) and lasts up to 60 minutes. The slot is guaranteed, and it adds a transcript and an automatic summary, always labelled as machine-generated. The paid option does not buy more time or a better position in the speaking order.
• Limitations: it is online, not in a hall. The audience is not in the room; they watch the stream on Facebook or YouTube. The recording is kept for seven days. It is a new service without a long list of references.

Where technology reaches its limits

A tool that keeps time by itself solves one specific problem: nobody can shout the others down. It does not decide whether people tell the truth, whether the question is good or whether anyone turns up. That is still the organiser's job.

At the same time, when technology keeps the time, the moderator does not have to argue with anyone. In a small town where everybody knows everybody, that may be the most practical advantage of all.

Petr Kolman