CZECH voters went to the polls Friday in the first round of voting to elect a new president, with billionaire populist and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis and retired army general Petr Pavel seen as the front-runners.
The two men lead eight candidates in the field. First-round voting continues Saturday, and if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote — which, polls indicate, is the likely outcome — there will be a second round of voting in two weeks.
Polls indicate a very close contest between the 68-year-Babis and the 61-year-old Pavel.
The top three
Babis is the leading opposition candidate. Czech political analyst and writer Jiri Pehe describes him as an “oligarch populist” who “flirts with the political orientation” of Hungarian President Viktor Orban.
Orban, an admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, comes under frequent criticism from the European Union, which has accused him of stifling democratic institutions.
Pavel, a former chair of NATO’s military committee, has received the endorsement of the government. He and the third-ranked candidate, according to most polls, 44-year-old economics professor Danuse Nerudova, are seen as the most pro-Western, pro-democratic candidates.
Nerudova would also be the first woman to hold the office of president.
