Former General Petr Pavel has opened up a strong lead over billionaire populist Andrej Babis ahead of the run-off for the Czech presidency on January 27-28, according to three opinion polls. Pavel narrowly won the first round with 35.4% against Babis on 35% on January 13-14.

Pavel, with 57.7 per cent of the vote, would beat the ANO chairman and former premier with 42.4% in the second round, according to a poll conducted by the STEM agency for CNN Prima News. Ipsos poll also shows that 58.8 percent of people would have voted for Pavel, while Babiš would have won 41.2 per cent of the vote.

A third poll by Data Collect and Kantar CZ for Czech Television published on Saturday showed 46 per cent of people would definitely vote for Pavel and 7 per cent would rather vote for him. Twenty-nine percent of voters would definitely vote for his opponent Babiš and 9 per cent would rather vote for him.

Pavel has been endorsed by four of the seven eliminated presidential candidates, including Danuse Nerudova, Pavel Fischer, Marek Hilšer, and Josef Stredula, none of the other candidates have backed Babis. Pavel has been boosted by impressive crowds at his appearances around the country.

Pavel has also been boosted by a huge gaffe by Babis in a debate on Czech TV on January 22, when he was asked about Czech troops defense of Poland or the Baltic states in the event of a Russian invasion, Babis insisted that he would not. The comments sparked a storm of criticism and could damage Babis’s efforts to depict himself as the experienced candidate.

Babis has been trying to paint himself as the “peace” candidate and to exploit the cost of living crisis. He has also claimed that, were he to be elected president, he would convene an international summit to negotiate peace, a suggestion that has been ridiculed by Pavel’s campaign and many commentators. Pavel is standing as an independent after collecting 81,000 signatures from citizens to secure his nomination. Though endorsed by the governing centre-right coalition, he has taken pains to criticise it for failing to do enough to help ordinary people.

Article by Prague Forum