PRAGUE, April 5 (RIA Novosti) - Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic has won a clear victory in the presidential election runoff with a decisive 55.5% of the votes, the country's central election commission said on Sunday.
Slovakia held the second round of the presidential elections on Saturday. Gasparovic, 68, gained 55.53% of the vote while his center-right challenger Iveta Radicova won 44.47%, the central election commission said after processing the data from all of the country's polling stations.
Gasparovic, who is backed by the socialist and the nationalist parties in the government, will be the first person to serve two five-year terms as the country's president. He was first elected in 2004 after Slovakia became an independent state on January 1, 1993.
The president's role in Slovakia is largely ceremonial but Gasparovic's reelection is seen as a vote of support for the Slovakian government led by leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
