Fischer still with best chances of winning Czech presidential elections in 2013.

By bne IntelliNews August 13, 2012
Jan Fischer, who served as Czech prime minister in a caretaker cabinet, still has the biggest chance of winning next year's presidential elections with support for him increasing by 2.5pps m/m to 34.5% in a July poll by Median agency, CTK newswire reported. Second ranked Milos Zeman, also ex-Czech premier and leader of the Party of Civic Rights Zemanovci (SPOZ), who was backed by 14% of the nearly 1,000 polled Czechs, down from 17% in the June poll. Independent Jan Svejnar followed with a backing of 11.5%. Senator Premysl Sobotka, the candidate of the senior ruling party Civic Democrats (ODS) and Jiri Dienstbier, the candidate of the main opposition party CSSD, lagged behind. The poll results showed that most likely the next Czech president will be elected in runoff, as none of the candidates would gain more than 50% of the votes in the first round. The turnout in the elections would be 67.5% if they are held now, an improvement by 0.5pps compared to the June's poll. The two houses of the Czech parliament already gave their backing to a bill allowing direct elections of the president replacing the existing parliamentary vote. The next Czech president will be elected in a two-round majority vote. The second term of incumbent President, Vaclav Klaus, will end in March 2013. He cannot run for another term according to the existing legislation.

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