Czechs elect president by direct vote for first time

PRAGUE (AP) – A former leftist prime minister and the Czech Republic’s conservative foreign minister will face each other in a presidential runoff later this month after finishing Saturday as the top two candidates in the ballot’s first round.

Ex-Premier Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg will compete in the second round of voting for the largely ceremonial post on January 25-26.

Former Czech Prime Minister and presidential candidate Milos Zeman talks to journalists on Jan 12 in Prague. Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg will face each other in a presidential runoff later this month after finishing Saturday as the top two candidates in the ballot’s first round.AFP

Czechs are electing the country’s president in a direct popular vote for the first time, to replace euroskeptic President Vaclav Klaus, whose second and final term ends March 7.

Since Czechoslovakia officially split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993, the republic has had two presidents elected by Parliament: Vaclav Havel and Klaus. But bickering during those votes led the legislature to give that decision to the general public.

With the votes from all of the 15,000 polling stations counted on Saturday, Zeman was leading with 24.21 per cent of the vote, followed by Schwarzenberg with 23.40 per cent.  Another former premier, Jan Fischer, was a distant third with 16.35 per cent.

Zeman and Schwarzenberg will advance to the runoff, since no candidate achieved a majority. They were among nine candidates in the race.

“It will be a presidential race between a candidate for the left and a candidate for the right,” Zeman said.  “We’ll start from scratch for the second round.”

Zeman and Fischer were considered favourites, but Schwarzenberg finished his campaign in style, attracting an unusually big crowd of about 10,000 in a rally in the capital this week.

Schwarzenberg said he would do all he can for the Czech Republic to be “a successful country”.