Czech president carries large lead into runoff vote
PRAGUE — Czech President Milos Zeman failed to win re-election Saturday during the first round of the country’s presidential vote and will face a runoff in two weeks against the former head of the country’s Academy of Sciences.
Zeman and Jiri Drahos advanced to a second round of voting after none of the nine candidates seeking the Czech Republic’s largely ceremonial presidency received a majority of votes in the first round held Friday and Saturday.
With almost all ballots counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Zeman had 38.6 percent of the vote, a commanding lead over Drahos’ 26.6 percent.
A former diplomat, Pavel Fischer, was a distant third with 10.2 percent.