Gorkoc won the first round of the Slovak presidential election

Liberal former foreign minister and ambassador Ivan Gorkoc won the first round of Slovakia's presidential election by a landslide. According to the official final results released by the State Election Commission on Sunday, he got 42.5 percent of the votes.

However, none of the nine candidates who contested won an outright majority, necessitating a runoff on April 6. Gorkoc, who is backed by the liberal opposition, will meet Peter Pellegrini, head of the Social Democratic Parliament. Pellegrini, the long-time leader of all polls, finished with just 37.0 percent.

Pellegrini and the “Voice – Social Democracy” (Hlas-SD) party he leads are part of a government coalition under left-wing populist Prime Minister Robert Figo and right-wing populist Slovak National Party SNS. Fico's party Smer also supported him in the election campaign. However, the co-ruling SNS backed pro-Russian nationalist and former justice minister Stepan Harabin, who came third with 11.7 percent.

The election campaign was overshadowed by the war in neighboring Ukraine and internal political disputes between Fico's government and the liberal opposition. While Gorkocz and the opposition want decisive military support for Ukraine, Pellegrini is urging caution, following the example of German Chancellor Olaf Scholes. 51.9 percent voting was recorded in Saturday's polling. (sda/dpa)

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