Prague, Sept 3 (CTK) – One-third of Czechs would vote again for President Milos Zeman if the presidential election were held now, according to a poll conducted by the ppm factum polling agency in late August and released yesterday.
According to the respondents, the post of president should be also sought by Finance Minister Andrej Babis, leader of ANO, unsuccessful candidate from the 2013 election Jan Fischer and Zeman’s rival in its runoff Karel Schwarzenberg (TOP 09).
In January 2013, Zeman won the votes of roughly 32 percent of entitled voters.
This time, he is popular with 33 percent. Another 11 percent said they did not know whether they would vote for him again and 56 percent said they would not .
Some 80 percent of those who voted for Zeman in the first round would do so again. When it comes to the runoff vote, it would be 70 percent.
Zeman tends to be more popular with leftist and elderly voters than with the rest. From the elderly, one-half would vote for Zeman again, while it was less than one-fifth among voters under 30.
The respondents were to name one or two people who should run in the next election, too. One-tenth cited Zeman, followed by Babis with 7 percent and Fischer with 6 percent.
Four percent would like Schwarzenberg to run again and 3 percent Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats).
The poll was conducted on a sample of 924 Czechs over 18 between August 13 and 23.
