Lawyer Zuzana Čaputová is the clear front-runner of the first round of voting for the President of Slovakia this weekend. She received almost 41 % of the vote, far ahead of Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission Vice-President who received 18.7 % of the vote and will be Čaputová's sole challenger in the second round.
Voter turnout in the first round was 46.04 %. Čaputová thanked all voters for casting ballots and addressed Romani voters in the Romanes language.
The current Slovak President Andrej Kiska has already congratulated the front-runner on her first-round victory. Štefan Harabin, a Supreme Court Justice, came in third with 14.35 % of the ballots, while fourth place went to Marian Kotleba, the boss of the Fascist party called Kotleba-Lidová strana Naše Slovensko (Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia).
The second round of voting will take place on 30 March. Čaputová is vice-chair of Progresivní Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia), a party not seated in Parliament, and profiled herself in her campaign as opposing the strongest governing party, Směr-sociální demokracie ("Direction-Social Democracy") of former Prime Minister Robert Fico, which is supporting Šefčovič.
