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Ljubljana (Slovenia), Oct. 23 (AP) A right-wing politician and a centrist independent candidate will face off in the second round of Slovenia’s presidential election, as no candidate is in the A clean victory in the first round of voting on Sunday.
State election authorities said after counting 85 percent of the vote, former foreign minister Anze Logar led with 34 percent, followed by lawyer Natasa Pirc Musar with nearly 27 percent. % of votes.
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Social Democrat Milan Brglez, the candidate for the ruling Liberal government, came in third with about 15 percent of the vote, according to official statistics.
With none of the seven contenders in the election able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, a clear victory, the runoff between Logar and Pilk Mousal will be held on November 13.
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While Logar took the lead on Sunday, analysts in Slovenia predicted that there could be a turnaround in the runoff if centrist and liberal voters in Slovenia back Pirc Musar.
Logar, 46, served under former populist prime minister Janez Jansa, who pushed Slovenia to the right while in power and faced accusations of undemocratic and divisive policies.
Logar sought to shed his populist image and cast himself as a unifier. His victory would be a blow to the Liberty Alliance, which ousted Jansa six months ago.
If Pilk Musar wins, she will become Slovenia’s first female president since independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
“I woke up happy, happy,” she said on Sunday’s vote. “I’m sure they (voters) will endorse my values and my nonpartisan leanings.”
Logar said getting to the second round would be a “success” and the rest would depend on “making a convincing political argument on the ground.”
Turnout was nearly 35 percent at 1400 GMT, slightly higher than the last presidential election five years ago, election officials said at the close of polls.
Slovenia’s 1.7 million eligible voters will eventually elect a successor to the current Borut Pahor. He has served two full five-year terms and has been barred from running for a third term.
During his tenure, Pahor sought to bridge the left-right divide in Slovenia, which remains a source of political tension in the traditionally moderate and stable country of two million people.
Prime Minister Robert Golob said the future president should have “moral authority” in the country’s political scene and “a great deal of trust among Slovenians”.
Ziga Jelenec, a resident of the capital Ljubljana, said the election could show “how divided our society is”. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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