Babiš moves into first place in new Ipsos presidential poll, Nerudová picks up pace

According to a newly released Ipsos poll, ANO party leader and former prime minister Andrej Babiš would win January’s first round of the presidential election with 29.7 percent of the vote. Retired general Petr Pavel maintains his position as the main competitor of Mr Babiš with 25.3 percent of the hypothetical vote, but only by a hair’s breadth, with economist and former rector of the Mendel University in Brno Danuše Nerudová polling just 0.3 percent behind him.

When compared with Ipsos’ October poll, Andrej Babiš has now moved into first place (up by 6.4 percent), while Mrs Nerudová saw a significant 8.1 percent surge.

The two senators who are running for the office of head of state, Pavel Fischer and Marek Hilšer, polled at 6.4 and 4.2 percent respectively. They were followed by lower-house deputy Jaroslav Bašta (3.6 percent), trade union leader Josef Středula (3.1 percent), Denisa Rohanová (1.5 percent) and former Charles University rector Tomáš Zima (1.2 percent).