Prague, Oct 10 (CTK) – Roughly one-third of Czechs who are ready to vote in the presidential election due in January would select President Milos Zeman, according to a poll conducted by the CVVM institute in September and released on Tuesday.
Roughly one-fifth of Czechs would vote for Jiri Drahos, a former chairman of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
Over one-quarter of Czechs still have not made up their mind.
Some 42 percent of Czechs definitely want to take part in the election, while another 25 percent said they might to do. This means that the turnout may reach 67 percent.
In the first direct election in 2013, turnout was 61.3 percent in the first round and 59.1 percent in the second, won by Zeman, who defeated conservative candidate Karel Schwarzenberg.
Out of those ready to vote, 31 percent are for Zeman, while Drahos would gain 18 percent and the third place would go to businessman Michal Horacek with 14 percent.
Behind the trio, there is a large gap. The rest of the candidates would not gain more than 2 percent of the vote.
There was also a question about the candidates being acceptable. On the scale between 0 for quite unacceptable to 10 for the most acceptable, the best rating was obtained by Drahos with 5.90 points, followed by Zeman with 4.92.
The poll was conducted on a sample of 970 Czechs over 15.
Voter preferences of presidential candidates (%):
Milos Zeman 31
Jiri Drahos 18
Michal Horacek 14
Jaroslav Kubera 2
Vratislav Kulhanek 1
Marek Hilser 1
other candidates 5
undecided 28
