14 Jan 2023, 19:44

Czech presidential race goes to Pavel-Babis runoff — first-round results

Results from 99.99% of the votes show that the 61-year-old Pavel secured 35.39% of the vote, while the 68-year-old Babis received 35%

© AP Photo/Petr David Josek

PRAGUE, January 14. /TASS/. Retired army General Petr Pavel and Andrej Babis, the former prime minister and a leader of the ANO political movement, were the first-round winners in the presidential election held on Friday and Saturday, as the race between them goes to the runoff vote scheduled for January 27-29, the idnes.cz website reported on Saturday citing the Czech Statistical Office.

Results from 99.99% of the votes show that the 61-year-old Pavel secured 35.39% of the vote, while the 68-year-old Babis received 35%.

A candidate must receive at least 50% of the vote in the first round to win. The voter turnout was 68.24% in the first round.

Babis conceded defeat to Pavel in the first round and congratulated him.

"I congratulate the pro-government candidate Petr Pavel on his victory in the first round of the presidential election," he said, expressing confidence that supporters of other presidential candidates who dropped out of the race in the first round will vote for the general in the runoff.

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