Retired Gen. Pavel wins election to become Czech president
PRAGUE (AP) — Retired army General Petr Pavel defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis in a runoff vote on Saturday to become the new Czech president.
Pavel, 61, will succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post.
With the ballots from 93% of almost 15,000 polling statins counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Pavel had 57.4% of the vote compared with 42.6% for Babis.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.