(Prague) Polling stations closed on Saturday in the Czech Republic, in the second round of the presidential election for which retired NATO general Petr Pavel remains a favorite against billionaire former Prime Minister Andrej Babis.
The results of the ballot are expected as early as Saturday around 10 a.m. (Eastern time).
Analysts predict a high turnout, after a particularly virulent election campaign.
Mr. Pavel, a former elite paratrooper, topped the latest opinion polls, with 58% to 59% of voting intentions, against 41% to 42% for his rival.
“Quite frankly, if the polls are done well, I think it will be difficult for Babis to go up,” Palacky University analyst Tomas Lebeda told AFP.
The winner will replace Milos Zeman, a controversial politician, who enjoyed close ties with Moscow before flip-flopping when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In the small town of Dobrichovice, south-west of Prague, in cool weather on Saturday, voter Irena Cihelkova explains to AFP that the new president will above all have to represent the country well.
“He should be open and friendly, which is an asset for the country, and not create problems abroad like other Czech statesmen,” she said.
Voting in the northern village of Cernoucek on Friday, the former general said he wanted to be “a worthy president” of an EU and NATO member country with 10.5 million people. ‘inhabitants.
PHOTO MICHAL CIZEK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Presidential candidate and former army chief of staff of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, arrives at a polling station in the village of Cernoucek.
“I’m not going to make empty promises but I will describe the reality as it is,” he added.
In a tweet posted on Saturday, Petr Pavel urged voters to “rush forward”, posting his picture while bungee jumping.
Mr Babis, 68, whose wealth and legal worries have made him a divisive figure, called the vote a “referendum on Babis”.
In the first round, for which eight candidates had been in the running, Mr. Pavel had beaten Mr. Babis, obtaining 35.4% of the vote against 35%. And it has since benefited from the carryover of the votes of some eliminated competitors.
Andrej Babis can count on stable support from voters in his populist center-left ANO movement but, according to experts, he also discouraged people with chaotic rants during the debates.
PHOTO MARKO DROBNJAKOVIC, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Presidential candidate and former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis holds his ballot.
The campaign between the two rounds was bitter, with a wave of misinformation that largely targeted Mr. Pavel, and death threats that targeted Mr. Babis and his family.
In a hoax launched on the internet, then relayed by text message, it was even claimed that Petr Pavel was dead.
Although his role is essentially ceremonial in the Czech Republic, the head of state appoints the government, chooses the governor of the central bank and the constitutional judges, and assumes supreme command of the armed forces.
Former para vs billionaire
Petr Pavel, 61, is a hero of the war in the former Yugoslavia during which he notably helped to free French soldiers. He then became chief of the Czech general staff and that of the military committee of NATO.
The two rivals had been members of the Communist Party in the 1980s, when Czechoslovakia was under Moscow’s tutelage.
Andrej Babis, owner of agro-food, chemical and media group Agrofert, is the fifth Czech fortune, according to the magazine Forbes.
Prime minister from 2017 to 2021, he caused controversy last week when he said he would not send Czech troops if other NATO member states, Poland or the Baltics, were attacked.
Remarks on which he returned but which aroused criticism in the region.
Independent political analyst Jan Kubacek, however, said the election would not lead to a change in Czech foreign policy, regardless of who wins.
“The Czech Republic will remain pro-Western,” he told AFP.