PRAGUE (AFP) — Vaclav Klaus failed Saturday by one vote to win a second term in a fiercely contested battle for the Czech presidency that has already gone to three rounds, official results showed.
Klaus, the 66-year-old eurosceptic and founder of the right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS), obtained 139 votes, just one short of the 140 required.
His rival, Czech-American economics professor Jan Svejnar, received 113, according to results read out by lower house speaker Miloslav Vlcek.
"In the third round neither candidate was elected. Basically a president was not elected," Vlcek confirmed.
Klaus came out narrowly ahead in the first vote on Friday and no official results were given for a second vote later that day during a mammoth 11-hour parliamentary session.
Both candidates declared Saturday their intention to run in yet another round of voting scheduled for February 15.
"I have already taken part in four three-round elections and I always received more votes than my rivals. I will go on, that is what counts," Klaus said.
Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek confirmed that the Civic Democrats, who are the largest party in both houses of parliament, would continue to back the incumbent.
The Communist Party has refused to back either Klaus or Svejnar and says it has its own candidate lined up to compete in the fourth round of voting next week.
Saturday's vote took place in a tense atmosphere with both the main parties accusing the other of dirty tricks.
Observers said Friday's bitterly contested decision to hold the vote in public allowed each camp to pinpoint which lawmakers they could actively encourage to switch sides.
The main opposition Social Democrats, where Svejnar gets most of his support, said one of its lawmakers, Evzen Snitily, had collapsed and been taken to hospital due to the pressure on him to switch to the Klaus camp.
The Civic Democrats, the country's main right-wing party, dismissed the charge as slanderous.
Two other lawmakers, both Christian Democrats who could have helped tip the balance in Klaus's favour, were also absent from the vote due to poor health.
Klaus, a former finance minister and premier and renowned eurosceptic, characterised himself as the candidate of "continuity" in a speech on Friday.
Meanwhile, Svejnar, 55, a former adviser to Klaus's predecessor Vaclav Havel and almost an unknown before declaring his candidacy in December, has promised to break down barriers and look to the future.
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