Bratislava: Slovaks began voting on Saturday for a new president with the favourite an outsider whose anti-corruption stance has resonated with voters still reeling from the fallout from an investigative journalist’s murder. An environmental lawyer with no experience in political office, Zuzana Caputova could become the EU and eurozone member’s first female president. Her rival in the run-off election is the ruling party’s candidate, EU energy commissioner and career diplomat Maros Sefcovic.
Two recent opinion polls give at least 60 per cent of the vote to Caputova, who ran on a slogan of “Stand up to evil”, telling that “People are calling for change” in the central European country of 5.4 million. She was among tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who rallied last year after journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were gunned down as he was preparing to publish a story on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia. Then prime minister Robert Fico was forced to resign but remains the leader of the populist-left Smer-SD party and is a close ally of the current premier. — AFP
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