Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Europe

Slovakia could elect its 1st female head of state

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • ff967a95-
    Image 1 of 2

    In this file photo taken on Friday, March 15, 2019, a man walks past a campaign poster for Zuzana Caputova in Bratislava, Slovakia. Slovakia could get its first woman president as voters elect a new head of state on Saturday March 30. The leading contenders are Zuzana Caputova, an environmental activist who is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in this conservative Roman Catholic country, and Maros Sefcovic, an establishment figure who is the European Commission Vice-President. The poster reads: "Let's stand against evil, together we can make it."(AP Photo/Petr David Josek/File)

  • f6c18c5c-
    Image 2 of 2

    In this file picture taken on Saturday, March 16, 2019, Presidential candidate Maros Sefcovic prepares to cast his vote at a polling station during the first round of the presidential election in Bratislava, Slovakia. Slovakia could get its first woman president as voters elect a new head of state on Saturday March 30. The leading contenders are Zuzana Caputova, an environmental activist who is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in this conservative Roman Catholic country, and Maros Sefcovic, an establishment figure who is the European Commission Vice-President. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek/File)

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – Voters in Slovakia are selecting a new head of state in a runoff that could give the country its first female president.

Zuzana Caputova, an environmental activist, is up against European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in the vote for the largely ceremonial post in the nation of 5.4 million.

Caputova won the first round two week ago with 40.6 percent of the vote while Sefcovic was a distant second with 18.7 percent.

Caputova attracts voters appalled by corruption and mainstream politics. Sefcovic is a career diplomat who is supported by the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, a major force in Slovak politics.

The winner will become the country's fifth head of state since Slovakia gained independence in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split in two.

Incumbent Andrej Kiska did not stand for a second term.