Retired general and ex-PM lead the field in Czech presidential election

The NATO and European Union members' presidents do not have daily executive power, but they appoint prime minsters, central bankers, judges and have a say in foreign affairs.

Retired General Petr Pavel (61), ran as an independent in two of the four final polls.

Andrej Babis (68), a former prime minister and billionaire, was the leader of the largest opposition party in parliament. He was also ahead in the two other.

A separate poll however favors Pavel in a likely second round over Babis. Babis has used the vote to protest against the centre right government that he claims does too little to help people cope with rising living costs.

There is no candidate who has won more than 50% of the first round. Voting ends Saturday at midnight. A run-off between the top two candidates will likely follow within two weeks.

There are eight candidates but only Pavel, Babis, and Danuse Nerudova (44), have a chance to make it to the second round. The pollsters expect Pavel to get more votes than Babis, and they give him an edge. Fortuna, a betting agency, saw Pavel as the favourite at 1-1.48 to beat Babis at 3-3.40.

Nerudova (44 years old) is third in polls. She would be the third woman to hold the job. It was first held by Vaclav Arel in 1993 after the break-up Czechoslovakia. Now it is held by Milos Zeman. Zeman tried to establish closer relations with Russia and China for the majority of his five-year terms.

PAVEL DOUBTS VISEGRAD GROUP

Babis, a friend of Viktor Orban's Hungarian leader, visited President Emmanuel Macron in France on Tuesday to show his greater connections in Europe.

Pavel distanced himself from Orban who has clashed with EU partners over rule-of-law and has questioned central Europe's merits of the Visegrad Group which also includes Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Pavel stated in a Wednesday debate that "when we disagree so much today about fundamental issues, there's a question whether this format should be abandoned altogether."

Pavel and Nerudova voted in favor of euro adoption and the tradition Havel's human-rights-led foreign policy.

Babis was in power from 2017-2021. The European Commission found him in conflict of interests due to subsidies paid by his Agrofert business empire. This trust is in a trust. In a case involving EU subsidy fraud, he was cleared.

Babis is the top candidate who has shown the least support for Ukraine. However, the government is in control of this policy. They have been Kyiv's most loyal supporters.

Pavel holds a Soviet-era as well as western military education. He has served in peacekeeping missions in former Yugoslavia during the 1990s and he led NATO's military committee from 2015-2018, which advises its general secretary.

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