President Zeman defends his post, beats academic Drahoš

Incumbent Czech President Milos Zeman was re-elected for another five years, beating former Science Academy chairman Jiri Drahos in the runoff vote today, according to CTK calculations based on the preliminary election results, Prague Daily Monitor reports.

Zeman is to gain between 51 and 52 percent of the vote, which is less than in the first direct presidential election five years ago when he won 54.8 percent.

However, Zeman gained more votes in this presidential runoff than five years ago when over 2.7 million voted for him. Now he got some 2.8 million votes. Zeman was leading from the beginning when the votes of the first constituencies were counted, while Drahos was cutting the lead gradually, but fared second in the end.