World News

Zeman wins Czech presidential election

Published: Jan. 26, 2013 at 12:59 PM

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Former Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman has won the Czech Republic's presidential election with 55 percent in a second round of polling, officials said.

Zeman, whose victory was announced Saturday, beat Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who took 45 percent of the vote, the BBC reported.

Zeman, of the Party of Civic Rights, a social-democratic party founded by Zeman in 2009, took 24.2 percent in the first round of voting, held on Jan. 11, while Schwarzenberg took 23.4 percent. The second round of voting was held Friday.

As president, Zeman will be responsible for representing the Czech Republic abroad, as well as appointing candidates to the constitutional court and the central bank. He will be replacing Vaclav Klaus, who has been in office for the past ten years.

Topics: Milos Zeman, Karel Schwarzenberg, Vaclav Klaus, Constitutional Court

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