Slovakia on the ballot for presidential runoff

(ANSA) - BRATISLAVA, 06 APR - Slovakia goes to the polls today for a presidential runoff election in which it will be decided whether populist premier Robert Fico will be forced into an uncomfortable five-year cohabitation with a pro-EU liberal figure or will have one of his staunch allies as president, consolidating a nationalist and pro-Russian drift that began last year. Indeed, a head-to-head contest looms between a former premier and current speaker of parliament, Peter Pellegrini, and a past foreign minister, Ivan Korcok, who won the first round two weeks ago.
    Four recent polls by reputable demographic institutes predict no sure winner but agree that a high turnout would favor Pellegrini.In the first round, voter turnout was 52 percent. The duel is the closest since direct election of the head of state was introduced in Slovakia in 1999. The 60-year-old 2020-2022 foreign minister, backed by the pro-Western opposition, had surprisingly won the first round with 42.51 percent of the vote, garnering nearly 124,000 more support than Pellegrini, who placed second with 37 percent as an expression of the current government's left-wing nationalism. But according to some analysts, this 5.5 basis point advantage may not be enough to beat 48-year-old Pellegrini, who had been premier between 2018 and 2020, on the ballot.Most voters who supported the defeated candidates in the first round are more likely to support Pellegrini than Korcok, a political scientist argued.
    Polling stations, open from 7 a.m. local and Italian time, close at 10 p.m. and significant results are expected around midnight.
    (ANSA).