Babiš scores in same districts as Zeman five years previously

ANO chief Andrej Babiš was successful in the first round of voting for the Czech presidency in the same electoral districts where outgoing head of state Miloš Zeman picked up support five years ago, according to analysis by the Czech News Agency. There was 94.5 percent concurrence between their results, it said.

However, Mr. Babiš did not achieve the same gains as Mr. Zeman, who publicly supported him in the run-up to the vote.

Mr. Zeman picked up 38.56 percent of the vote in the first round in 2018, compared to 34.99 percent for Mr. Babiš.

The ANO chief did pick up a higher percentage of the vote than his own party. It garnered 1.5 million votes (for 29.64 percent) in the last general elections, 450,000 fewer than Mr. Babiš did in the first round.