Czech President Milos Zeman arrives to cast a vote during the country’s direct presidential election at a polling station in Prague, the Czech Republic January 12, 2018. — Reuters picPRAGUE, Jan 13 — Incumbent Milos Zeman won the first round of the Czech Republic’s presidential election on Saturday with 39.80 percent of the vote, results from 90.3 per cent of voting districts showed.

The runner up was Jiri Drahos, a pro-Western academic, with 26.02 per cent, well ahead of the remaining seven contenders.

The two highest-scoring candidates will go head-to-head in a run-off planned for January 26-27. — Reuters </s> Miloš Zeman has failed to win the Czech presidential election outright in the first round, he will probably lose in the second round





The final results in the first round of the Czech direct presidential election, which took place on Friday 12th January and on Saturday 13th January, show that the incumbent Miloš Zeman has received 38,56 per cent of the votes, his main opponent Jiří Drahoš has received 26, 60 per cent. Former diplomat Pavel Fischer received 10,23 per cent of the votes, Michal Horáček 9,18 per cent and Marek Hilšer 8,83 per cent.



Zeman would have won the first round outright had he received more than 50 per cent of the votes. This has not happened.



The results from the first round of the Czech presidential election indicate that the incumbent candidate Miloš Zeman will probably lose against his main opponent Jiří Drahoš in the second round, because most of the voters who have supported the anti-Zeman candidates in the first round will vote for Drahoš. 



Jiří Drahoš is a former Head of the Czech Academy of Sciences and is a pro-Western and pro-EU candidate, with right-of-centre leanings.



Vote participation in the first round of the 2018 Czech presidential election was 61, 89 per cent.



The second round of the Czech presidential election will take place in a fortnight. </s> Incumbent Czech President Milos Zeman is winning the first round of election on Saturday with 39.80 percent of the vote as over 90 percent of the votes have been counted, Sputnik reported.

His main opponent, Jiri Drahos, who is the former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has gained 26.02 percent, according to preliminary data.

If no candidate wins a majority, the run-off will be held on January 26-27. </s> Incumbent Czech President Milos Zeman is winning the first round of election on Saturday with 39.80 percent of the vote as over 90 percent of the votes have been counted.

His main opponent, Jiri Drahos, who is the former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has gained 26.02 percent, according to preliminary data.

If no candidate wins a majority, the run-off will be held on January 26-27.

A total of nine candidates are running for the presidency.

READ MORE: Over Third of Czech Citizens to Support Incumbent President Zeman at 2018 Vote

Zeman has served as the Czech president since March 2013. He ran as the candidate from the Party of Civic Rights, which he founded in 2009. </s> PRAGUE (Reuters) - Russia-friendly Czech President Milos Zeman won the first round of voting to retain his job on Saturday, but pro-western runner-up Jiri Drahos will be a formidable opponent in the second round vote in two weeks, nearly complete results showed.

The vote is seen as a referendum on the 73-year-old Zeman, in office since 2013, who has criticized immigration flows from Muslim countries and Germany’s decision to accept many migrants.

While most Czechs share his views on immigration, Zeman’s inclination toward far-right groups and his warm relations with Russia and China have split public opinion, with a sizeable chunk of the electorate favoring pro-western candidates, including 68-year-old academic Drahos.

Czech presidents have limited executive powers, but Zeman and his predecessors have had a strong influence on public debate. They are also pivotal in forming governments — which the European Union and NATO member country is now trying to do.

With votes from 98.9 percent of districts counted, Zeman led the race with 38.6 percent of votes, while Drahos had won 26.6 percent.

That means a run-off needs to be held, and the balance of power may be closer than the first round showed. Four other candidates who ended between the third and sixth place and among them won 32.5 percent, all endorsed Drahos for the second round due on Jan. 26-27.

“This looks hopeful,” Drahos told supporters and reporters at a Prague theater after most results had come in. “By far the toughest game now awaits against Milos Zeman and his advisers... Come to vote, come to vote, come to vote.”

Zeman, who had shunned public debates ahead of the first round, accepted Drahos’ challenge to a television duel and said he hoped voters could make up their own mind.

“I assume citizens have their own opinion and their own reason. They are not puppets that can be manipulated by endorsement from whoever,” Zeman told reporters at his campaign headquarters.

Czech President Milos Zeman, next to his wife Ivana, attends a news conference, after polling stations closed for the country's direct presidential election, in Prague, the Czech Republic January 13, 2018. REUTERS/Matej Stransky/Pool

A win for the soft-spoken, grey-haired chemical engineer Drahos could mean the tone of the Czech leadership shifts closer to the EU mainstream.

“I voted for professor Drahos because I want someone who will not push us to the East and who will not be a disgrace,” said lawyer Matej Gredl, 30, after he voted in Prague.

The outcome may also influence Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s chances of forming a cabinet. His first attempt to rule in a minority administration is likely to be rejected by parliament next week.

Zeman has backed Babis and said he would give him another chance even though the billionaire businessman has struggled to get support from other parties while he battles police allegations that he illegally obtained EU subsidies a decade ago. Babis denies wrongdoing.

TOO SMALL WIN

A former center-left prime minister and backer of a federal Europe, Zeman has gradually shifted to positions criticizing the EU, echoing and reinforcing public sentiment.

He has won endorsements from some mainstream groups as well as the Communist Party and the main far-right anti-EU and anti-NATO SPD party.

“The first round result is a heavy blow for Milos Zeman, although he won it formally. It shows he doesn’t have much more where to take the votes,” said political scientist Josef Mlejnek jr.

“They will try to picture (Drahos) as a friend of migrants, an agent of the EU.”

Slideshow (11 Images)

The Czech Republic has a tiny Muslim minority and has seen only a few of the hundreds of thousands of people coming to Europe in recent years to seek safety from war or better life.

Zeman has sought more trade and closer ties with China and has warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for the removal of EU sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea to boost business.

He has strong support mainly in the countryside of the nation of 10.6 million people, and often snipes at Prague elites and the media. Drahos said he needed to boost his visibility outside the capital - the only region he won - and would focus on that ahead of the second round. </s> Czech President Milos Zeman has taken an early lead as votes are counted in the presidential election.With 30% of results in, he had 42% with nearest rival Jiri Drahos on 24%.

However, the BBC’s Rob Cameron in Prague says there are indications that the election will go to a second round later this month.

Mr Zeman, 73, is seeking a second five-year term but has stoked controversy with his outspoken views and pro-Russian stance.

Turnout in the first round, which took place over two days, was about 60%, election officials said.

Most of the early results came from rural areas where Mr Zeman’s support is high. To avoid a run-off he must win more than 50% of the vote, but observers say that is unlikely unless there are dramatic changes in urban results.

If a second round is confirmed, it is expected to be held on 26-27 January.

Mr Zeman’s forthright views on immigrants and political correctness have struck a chord in rural communities, our correspondent says.

However, urban voters are more likely to agree with his pro-European challengers, who say he has poisoned the political atmosphere and unsettled allies.

The first round of voting passed uneventfully apart from a semi-naked protester who tried to disrupt Mr Zeman casting his vote in Prague on Friday.

The topless woman from the feminist group Femen accused him of being in the pocket of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She was bundled away and Mr Zeman then cast his ballot, but was visibly shaken by the incident.

President Zeman has become one of the EU’s most outspoken opponents of sanctions against Moscow and has also made improving relations with China a priority.

Mr Drahos, a pro-European academic, has been forthright in his opposition to the president, saying: “We say in Czech that ‘the fish stinks from the head’ and that perfectly sums up Mr Zeman’s term.” </s> The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, led the first round of the Czech Republic’s presidential election on Saturday by a wide margin but short of winning outright, partial results have showed.

Eight candidates are seeking to oust Zeman, whose inclination toward far-right groups and cosy relations with Russia and China have split public opinion.

With 30.6% of voting districts counted, Zeman led the race with 42.9% of votes, while Jiří Drahoš, a 68-year-old pro-western academic, won 24.7%.

Unless the winner takes more than 50% in the first round, the two highest-scoring candidates will go head to head in a run-off planned for 26-27 January.

The vote is seen as a referendum on Zeman, 73, who has been in office since 2013. He has criticised migration from Muslim-majority countries as well as Germany’s decision to accept many migrants.

Czech presidents have limited executive powers but Zeman and his predecessors have had a strong influence on public debate. They are also pivotal in forming governments – which the European Union and NATO member country is now trying to do.

Zeman’s lead does not mean an easy win in the second round. Many voters may switch from their losing candidates to support the runner-up against Zeman. </s> Voters in the Czech Republic were going to the polls on January 13 for a second day of voting in the country's presidential election.

Incumbent President Milos Zeman, 73, was facing a pack of nine challengers, headed by former Academy of Sciences President Jiri Drahos. Zeman is known for his anti-immigrant, pro-Russian, and pro-Chinese positions, while Drahos is seen as a pro-European liberal.

According to polls taken before the voting, Zeman was expected to win the first round, but seemed unlikely to win an outright majority. A second round of voting, if necessary, would be held January 26-27.

Other candidates include songwriter Michal Horachek, former right-wing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, and former Skoda carmaker head Vratislav Kulhanek.

Preliminary results of the election were expected later on January 13.

When Zeman cast his ballot in Prague on January 12, he was rushed by a topless protester from Femen, an international radical feminist group that originated in Ukraine.

The woman, identified in a Femen statement as Angelina Dash, had the slogan, "Zeman, Putin's Slut" scrawled across her naked chest, a reference to Zeman's close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa </s> SKOPJE, North Macedonia — Polls have opened in North Macedonia for a presidential election runoff between two top vote-getters from the first round.

More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. Sunday.

The two candidates, Stevo Pendarovski of the ruling Social Democrats, and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, backed by the conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, finished in a near dead heat, with about 42% of the votes each, in the first round on April 21.

A key question is whether turnout will reach the 40% needed for the election to be valid. The first round barely made it past, with a turnout of 41.8%.

If declared invalid, the two-round contest for the largely ceremonial post will be repeated. </s> PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's pro-Russia president won a second five-year term Saturday after beating a political newcomer viewed as more Western-oriented in a runoff vote.

With ballots from almost all polling stations counted, the Czech Statistics Office said President Milos Zeman had received 51.5 percent of the vote during the two-day runoff election.

His opponent, former Czech Academy of Sciences head Jiri Drahos, garnered 48.5 percent.

The Czech Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Appearing before supporters Saturday, Zeman, 73, called his win "my last political victory" and said "no political loss will follow."

He pledged "to work as I have worked so far."

Drahos conceded defeat and congratulated Zeman on Saturday afternoon. The career scientist and chemistry professor said he planned to stay in politics, but did not provide details.

"It's not over," Drahos said.

Zeman, a veteran of Czech politics and former left-wing prime minister, won his first term in 2013 during the Czech Republic's first presidential election decided by voters, not lawmakers.

Since then, he has divided the nation with his pro-Russia stance, support for closer ties with China, and strong anti-migrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Zeman was one of the few European leaders to endorse Donald Trump's bid for the White House. He also has proposed a referendum on the Czech Republic's membership in the European Union like the one held in Britain.

Drahos, 68, who led the Academy of Sciences from 2009 until last year, campaigned on maintaining the country's ties to the EU and NATO. He ran unaffiliated with a political party.

One of the Czech president's key responsibilities is picking the prime minister after a general election, power that was on display in the days before the runoff election.

The government led by populist billionaire Andrej Babis since his party placed first in an October election resigned Wednesday after failing to win a confidence vote. Zeman immediately asked Babis, his ally, to try again.

The president had said that even if he lost the election, he would swear Babis in again as prime minister before his term expired on March 8.

The president also appoints members of the Central Bank board and selects Constitutional Court judges with the approval of Parliament's upper house.

Otherwise, the president has little direct executive power since the country is run by a government chosen and led by the prime minister.

Zeman is considered a leading pro-Russian voice in EU politics. His views on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as well as Europe's migrant crisis, diverge sharply from the European mainstream. He called Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula irreversible.

He has linked extremist attacks in Europe to the ongoing influx of newcomers, called the immigration wave an "organized invasion" and repeatedly said that Islam is not compatible with European culture.

Zeman has exploited widespread fear of migration among Czechs and worked to portray Drahos as someone who would welcome migrants.

A group of Zeman's supporters commissioned billboards and newspaper ads that called on citizens to "Stop Migrants and Drahos," adding "This is our land! Vote Zeman!"

Some pro-Russian websites spread fake news about Drahos during the campaign, according to the Prague Security Studies Institute, a respected think tank.

The false information alleged that he cooperated with the Communist-era secret police and was willing to accept an EU plan to redistribute asylum-seekers among member countries, the institute said.

Zeman is the Czech Republic's third president, after Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus, since the country and Slovakia were created from Czechoslovakia in 1993.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The first round of the presidential election results in a second round that will be held on 26 and 27 January between Miloš Zeman and Jiří Drahoš.