Prague, April 28 (CTK) – Presidential candidate Jiri Drahos, who lost to Milos Zeman in the runoff, spent 50 million crowns on his campaign, according to the report he provided to the Czech office supervising the financing of political parties.
The nine candidates who ran in the presidential election held in January are obliged to submit the reports on the financing of their campaigns by May 1.
The academic Drahos received donations of 46.7 million crowns and he received services worth 3.3 million crowns for free. His own contribution to the financing was 76,300 crowns.
Zeman, who defended his post, received about 26.5 million crowns from his supporters. Unlike the other candidates, he did not cover the campaign’s costs from his transparent account but via the group Friends of Milos Zeman.
The entrepreneur Michal Horacek spent 39.9 million crowns on the campaign and he paid all by himself. He received services of 271,000 crowns for free.
The former prime minister Mirek Topolanek spent 18.1 million crowns, of which 10.7 million were donations and 7.4 million were from his own sources.
The diplomat Pavel Fischer spent 8.7 million crowns on his campaign, including donations of 7 million.
The activist physician Marek Hilser spent 1.8 million crowns, most of which was the estimated cost of the work of his team of volunteers. He received donations of 455,000 crowns.
The campaign of defence expert Jiri Hynek cost 732,000 crowns and he got 440,000 crowns from donors.
The retired car-maker manager Vratislav Kulhanek spent 7.4 million crowns on the campaign, nearly all of which was a donation from businessman Pavel Sehnal. Sehnal financed the marginal ODA party, for which Kulhanek ran for president.
The campaign of musician Petr Hannig cost 127,000 crowns.
Kulhanek, Hynek and Hannig won only a small number of votes in the first round of the presidential election.
Horacek started campaigning in late 2016 and he was followed by Drahos who launch his campaign in early 2017. Topolanek and Fischer entered the campaign only shortly before the deadline expired late last year.
