BRATISLAVA, March 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Government critic Zuzana Caputova secured a huge first-round win over the ruling party candidate in Slovakia’s weekend election, putting her one step closer to becoming the country’s first female president.
Provisional results showed Caputova securing more than twice the votes of her rival Maros Sefcovic, suggesting the electorate had shunned the political establishment following last year’s shock murder of an investigative journalist probing corruption.
The liberal environmental lawyer, who secured 40 per cent of the vote, is almost certain to win the March 30 run-off against European Commission vice-president Sefcovic, who took just 19 per cent.
The outcome is likely to spell trouble for the governing Smer-SD ahead of next year’s general election.
Running on a slogan of “Stand up to evil,” the divorced mother of two had joined tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets after the killing of journalist Jan Kuciak who was investigating political corruption.
Kuciak and his fiancee were gunned down in February 2018 just as he was about to publish a story on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia.
The murder shocked the nation and raised fears about media freedom and political corruption.
It also sparked the largest anti-government protests since communist times in the central European country of 5.4 million people, which spent decades behind the Iron Curtain before joining the European Union, the eurozone and NATO.
According to a new opinion poll by the Focus pollster, Caputova would secure 64 per cent of the run-off vote to Sefcovic’s 36.
Though the office is largely ceremonial, the president ratifies international treaties, appoints top judges, is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and can veto laws passed by parliament.
Turnout in round one of the presidential election was nearly 49 per cent, a little higher than what the country is used to. — NNN-AGENCIES
