WARSAW: Former Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman has won the country’s first direct presidential election in the second round, the Czech state statistics directorate (ChSU) said on Saturday. His term will begin in March 2013.
With all the votes counted, Zeman had won 54.80 percent. His rival, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, won 45.19 percent.
Miloš Zeman; born 28 September 1944 in Kolín) is the president-elect of the Czech Republic. He served as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2002. He was also leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party and served as Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Czech parliament, from 1996 to 1998. He was a frequent rival of Václav Klaus. Zeman transformed a weak Czech Social Democratic Party into one of the country’s major parties along with the Civic Democratic Party. On 26 January, 2013, he was elected the President of the Czech Republic. His term will begin in March 2013.
