PRAGUE: Polling stations opened Friday for the Czech presidential election run-off in which retired Nato general Petr Pavel is expected to beat billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis.
Despite the grim weather, analysts expected high turnout for the two-day vote, which follows an election campaign marked by hostility and controversial comments regarding the war in Ukraine.
The victor will replace Milos Zeman, an outspoken and divisive politician who nursed close ties with Moscow before making a U-turn when Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Former paratrooper Pavel topped final opinion polls with 58-59 per cent support, compared with 41-42 per cent for Babis.
Eight candidates stood in the first round vote when Pavel edged Babis with 35.4 per cent against 35, and with right and centre backing he has since wooed the voters of several of the other candidates.
Babis can rely on stable support from voters of his centre-left populist ANO movement, but he appears unlikely to win over a significant number of new votes.
He also annoyed some with rather chaotic diatribes in debates, which led Masaryk University analyst Otto Eibl to tell he was "rhetorically hard to figure out".
The two-week campaign between the election rounds was particularly antagonistic, with disinformation largely targeting Pavel, including a hoax claiming he was dead, death threats aimed at Babis and his family.
"Quite frankly, if the (opinion) polls are well conducted, I think it will be hard for Babis to come back," Palacky University analyst Tomas Lebeda said.
"I expect Petr Pavel to win," he added. Pavel was due to cast his vote in the tiny northern village of Cernoucek and Babis in the small suburban town of Pruhonice just south of the capital on Friday afternoon.
The new head of state will face record inflation in the central European EU and Nato member of 10.5 million people.
While the role is largely ceremonial, the president names the government, picks the central bank governor and constitutional judges, and serves as top commander of the armed forces.
Pavel, 61, was decorated as a hero of the Serbo-Croatian war in which he helped free French troops from a war zone.
He went on to become the chief of the Czech general staff and chair of Nato's military committee. - AFP
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