Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico and independent challenger Andrej Kiska will run for a second round of the country’s presidential elections.
In Saturday’s first round, Robert Fico polled 28.2% with Andrej Kiska on 24% on a turnout of 43.4%.
Independent conservative Radoslav Prochazka was third with 20.8%.
As no candidate gained 50% of the votes, a second round run-off will be held in two weeks’ time for the mainly ceremonial post.
Robert Fico’s left-wing Smer party won the parliamentary election in 2012.
The 49-year-old had previously served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010, pursuing an anti-austerity agenda.
Since the 2012 elections Robert Fico’s party has governed alone – the first time since independence that a party secured an absolute majority in the Slovak parliament.
Slovakia’s president has the power to appoint the prime minister, as well as the main figures in the judiciary.
Independent challenger Andrej Kiska and PM Robert Fico will run for a second round of Slovakia’s presidential elections (photo SITA/Jozef Jakubèo)
Robert Fico’s bid for the presidency is widely seen as an attempt to make his domination of Slovak politics total.
Outgoing President Ivan Gasparovic was elected for the first of two five-year terms in 2004 as voters united against former PM Vladimir Meciar.
Slovakia adopted the euro in 2009 during Robert Fico’s previous term as prime minister.
The country has since seen significant economic growth.
Past governments had been blamed for privatization scandals and other forms of corruption.
Analysts say challenger Andrej Kiska, a 51-year-old millionaire, is riding a wave of continuing popular anger at allegations of sleaze and distrust in established parties.
Andrej Kiska says he wants to fight corruption and create a more efficient government.
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Slovakia votes in a presidential election that pits current PM Robert Fico against independent challenger Andrej Kiska.
PM Robert Fico is seen as the frontrunner, ahead of businessman-turned-philanthropist Andrej Kiska.
Opinion polls predict a two-candidate run-off vote will follow as no one is expected to win an outright majority.
Robert Fico’s leftist Smer party won over half of the seats in parliament in the 2012 general election.
The Slovak president has the power to appoint the prime minister, as well as the main figures in the judiciary.
However, it is a largely ceremonial role and parliament exercises legislative power.
Slovakia’s PM Robert Fico is seen as the frontrunner in today’s presidential election
Outgoing President Ivan Gasparovic was elected for the first of two five-year terms in 2004 as voters united against former nationalist PM Vladimir Meciar.
Slovakia adopted the euro in 2009 during Robert Fico’s previous term as prime minister.
The country since has seen significant economic growth.
Past governments been blamed for privatization scandals and other forms of corruption.
Analysts say Andrej Kiska is riding a wave of continuing popular anger at sleaze and distrust in established parties.
The 51-year-old is a successful businessman-turned-philanthropist who says he wants to fight corruption and create a more efficient government.
Other candidates in Saturday’s vote include actor Milan Knazko, who was a leading figure of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and Radoslav Prochazka, an independent conservative lawmaker with a degree from Yale Law School.
Saturday’s first round is unlikely to produce an outright winner, who would need over 50% of the vote, but is expected to send Robert Fico and Andrej Kiska into a run-off on March 29.
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Slovakia has accepted three ethnic Uighur Chinese prisoners from Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the Slovak interior ministry says.
The three are now in the capital Bratislava, a ministry official said. None of them are terror suspects, the ministry stressed.
Slovakia – a member of the EU and NATO – also accepted three inmates from Guantanamo in 2010.
The US says all the Uighur prisoners have now been released from Guantanamo.
Since 2001 the prison has housed suspects detained by US forces during operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
“As in the case of the first transport, the persons in this transport have never been suspected nor accused of terrorism. The transport is a follow-up to the agreement of 2009 [with the US],” the Slovak ministry statement said.
Slovakia has accepted three ethnic Uighur Chinese prisoners from Guantanamo Bay detention camp
A US Department of Defense statement named the latest three Uighurs as Yusef Abbas, Saidullah Khalik and Hajiakbar Abdul Ghuper.
“These three are the last ethnic Uighur Chinese nationals to be transferred,” the statement said, adding that they “are voluntarily resettling in Slovakia”.
“This transfer and resettlement constitutes a significant milestone in our effort to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay,” the statement said, and it thanked the Slovak government for its “humanitarian gesture”.
The US refuses to repatriate Uighur detainees to China because of the risk that they could be mistreated. China has cracked down hard on Uighur dissidents who oppose rule from Beijing.
The latest release brings down the total of Guantanamo detainees to 155. Many have been held there for more than a decade, and many were cleared for release years ago.
More than 100 inmates went on hunger strike earlier this year.
According to a prisoner list published on WikiLeaks website, 22 Chinese Muslim Uyghurs were imprisoned at Guantanamo by US forces after capture in Afghanistan.
In April 2013, President Barack Obama renewed his call to close the prison, saying “it is inefficient, it hurts us in terms of our international standing”.
Previously six Uighurs have been sent from Guantanamo to the Pacific island nation of Palau, while 11 others have gone to Bermuda, Albania and Switzerland.
The Uighurs are a mainly Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority based in western China’s Xinjiang region.
