Czech Republic: Pro-Russia Zeman wins Czech Republic election

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 99 percent of polling stations counted, the Czech Statistics Office said President Milos Zeman had received 51.6 percent of the vote during the two-day runoff election.

His opponent, former Czech Academy of Sciences head Jiri Drahos, had 48.4 percent.
Mr Drahos conceded defeat and congratulated Mr 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," Mr Drahos said.

Mr Zeman, 73, 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.

Read more: Czech Republic: Pro-Russia Zeman wins Czech Republic election  

Czech Republic: Leftist former prime minister elected new Czech president

Leftist former prime minister Milos Zeman won the Czech Republic’s first direct presidential election, beating a conservative opponent, results showed on Saturday.

Zeman, 68, was leading by 55.1 to 44.9 percent over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who is from a centuries-old aristocratic family, results from 98.3 percent of voting districts showed.

Economic forecaster Zeman, a member of the Communist Party before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, will take the Czechs closer to the European mainstream. Outgoing President Vaclav Klaus is strongly Eurosceptic.

Czech presidents do not wield much day-to-day power but represent the country abroad and appoint prime ministers, central bankers and judges.

Zeman served as Social Democrat prime minister in 1998-2002 under a power-sharing deal with Klaus’s right-wing party that critics saw as a breeding ground for corruption.

Read more: Leftist former prime minister elected new Czech president - CZECH REPUBLIC - FRANCE 24

Czech Republic: Rivals in Czech Presidential Runoff Support Warmer Ties With Europe - by Dan Bilefsky

An outspoken former prime minister and the current foreign minister will face each other in the Czech Republic’s presidential runoff in two weeks, according to the results of the first round of voting released Saturday.

The charismatic former prime minister, Milos Zeman, won 24.21 percent of the vote, giving him a narrow lead over Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, an ardent supporter of the European Union and the United States, who got 23.4 percent.

This is the first direct popular vote for a head of state in the Czech Republic. Czechoslovakia split in 1993 to create the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

The winner will succeed President Vaclav Klaus, a vociferous critic of the European Union who once compared the European bloc to a Communist state. He has dominated Czech politics for decades.

Both Mr. Zeman and Mr. Schwarzenberg are proponents of European integration, so the next president is expected to offer a decisive break with the outspoken anti-European statements of the Klaus era.

Read more: Rivals in Czech Presidential Runoff Support Warmer Ties With Europe - NYTimes.com