Unofficial results show incumbent Ivan Gašparovič and Iveta Radičová progressing to the second round of the presidential election. The first round was held on March 21 with the election precincts closing their doors at 22:00.
After counting the votes from 5,867 of 5,919 election precincts, Gašparovič finished first with 46.96 percent of the votes and Radičová was second with 38.1 percent.
František Mikloško follows with 5.41 percent and Zuzana Martináková with 5.11 percent. Milan Melník collected 2.44 percent, followed by Dagmara Bollová with 1.14 and Milan Sidor with 1.17 percent.
Since none of the candidates received more than half of the votes of all the eligible voters, the second election round will be held on April 4 in which only the two top candidates will compete.
The voter turnout is estimated at 43.61 percent, wrote the SITA newswire, citing preliminary unofficial results published by the Slovak Statistics Office.
Gašparovič is being supported by two of the parties which make up the ruling coalition; Smer, the largest party in parliament and the Slovak National Party (SNS). Radičová is endorsed by the three largest parliamentary opposition parties - the Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH), and the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK).
In the first round of the presidential election in Slovakia on March 21, seven candidates were running.
The election term of the current president ends on June 15.
