Petr Pavel, a former chairman of Nato’s military committee, is a political newcomer
Czech Republic's Petr Pavel with his wife Eva Pavlova arrive at his election headquarters during the run-off vote in Czech presidential election. Photograph: Martin Divisek/EPARetired army general Petr Pavel defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis in a run-off vote to become the new Czech president.
Mr Pavel, who is 61 years old, will succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post. With the ballots from 93 per cent of almost 15,000 polling statins counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Mr Pavel had 57.4 per cent of the vote compared with 42.6 per cent for Mr Babis.
Mr Pavel and Mr Babis, a former prime minister, had advanced to a second round of voting because none of the eight initial candidates received an absolute majority in the first round
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