Klaus ahead of Svejnar in public opinion

The incumbent Vaclav Klaus would defeat Jan Svejnar if there were a direct vote for president, suggests a poll carried out for the SC&C agency for the newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes. Sixty-three percent of respondents in the mid-November poll said they would vote for President Klaus if they could. On Wednesday his party the Civic Democrats are set to nominate Mr Klaus officially. Jan Svejnar, a US-based economist backed by the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens, is still seeking support for his possible candidature from other parties. Both houses of the Czech Parliament will vote on the next president at the beginning of February.