Former foreign minister Ivan Korčok won the first round of the Slovak presidential election on Saturday, according to preliminary results published by election authorities in the early hours of Sunday.
Korčok was set to face parliamentary speaker Peter Pellegrini in a second round of voting on April 6, as none of the nine candidates received more than 50% of votes.
According to Slovakia's Statistical Office, with the 99.9% of constituencies counted, Korčok was leading Pellegrini by over 42.5% to over 37%. According to these preliminary results, voter turnout was around 51%.
Some 4.4 million Slovak voters were called on to elect a new head of state on Saturday, though a run-off had been widely predicted in advance of the election in the deeply divided country.
Voting was supposed to close at 10 pm (2100 GMT), but ended half an hour later for technical reasons. The final result expected to be announced by Sunday afternoon.
There were no women in the field of nine candidates standing in the election. The incumbent president, Zuzana Čaputová, did not run for a second five-year term despite her continued popularity.
Social Democrat Pellegrini, who is part of the government coalition, and liberal former foreign minister Korčok were the two clear favourites according to opinion polls ahead of the election.
Korčok promises to be a counterweight to the left-wing nationalist government under Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Pellegrini is calling on Slovakians to overcome the country's crippling political divide. He wants to maintain a good relationship with the government as well as the opposition.
Slovak politics and society are currently deeply divided, and the climate between the government and opposition has been tainted by mutual accusations.
There is a tense debate about the country's stance on the war in Ukraine, but also about the rule of law and democracy. The country has seen repeated mass protests against the government.
