2 favorites in Slovak president vote in the lead

2 favorites in Slovak president vote in the lead

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Voting has ended in the first round of Slovakia's presidential election, and early results show the favorite candidates in a lead. The Slovak statistics Office says that Zuzana Caputova has 38.87 percent of the vote with ballots from over 30 percent of polling stations counted on Saturday. The 45-year-old environmental and anti-corruption activist is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in the conservative Roman Catholic country. Her strongest challenger Maros Sefcovic, an establishment figure who is the European Commission Vice-President, was running distant second with 18.83 percent. A pro-Russian candidate Stefan Harabin was third with 14.64 percent. Andrej Kiska, a successful businessman-turned-philanthropist, is not standing for a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial post. If no single candidate wins a majority on Saturday, a runoff will be held on March 30 in this central European nation of 5.4 million people.