In the first round of voting, which ended on Saturday, the two fought a close race. After Babiš was initially in the lead, after the counting of around 99 percent of the polling stations, Pavel finally led with 35.21 percent, just ahead of Babiš with 35.17 percent.
Time was ticking for the former NATO general, as polling stations in the country’s larger cities, which tend to be skeptical of populist ex-prime minister and billionaire entrepreneur Babiš, were last counted.
The third favorite of the voting, Danuše Nerudová, ended up surprisingly far behind in third place. The economist only got just under 14 percent of the votes. As expected, the other five candidates remained below the ten percent mark. There was a turnout of around 67 percent.
Pavel said in a first comment that he was looking forward to running against Babiš in the runoff. “It will be a big challenge and I like challenges,” said the former NATO general. The question now is whether voters would believe the former prime minister’s “empty promises” or whether they would want a change.
Pavel warned that electing the billionaire entrepreneur as president posed a risk of populism and a “democracy turning away from the pro-Western and European course.” The Czech Republic would end up somewhere on the border between West and East, “which would harm us a lot,” said Pavel. According to earlier polls, the 61-year-old is said to have a better chance of winning the runoff than Babiš.
The head of the populist party ANO and billionaire Babiš served as head of government in the neighboring country from 2017 to 2021. The controversial businessman narrowly lost last year’s parliamentary elections to the centre-right coalition that now governs.
The runoff election will take place on January 27th and 28th. The term of office of the incumbent President Miloš Zeman ends at the beginning of March.
High turnout in presidential elections in the Czech Republic
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