PRAGUE, Jan  28, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Retired NATO general Petr Pavel beat a 
billionaire former prime minister in an election run-off on Saturday to become 
the fourth president of the Czech Republic, official results showed.
      
 Pavel, a former paratrooper, won 58 percent of votes while Andrej Babis 
scored 42 percent, with 99 percent of the vote counted, according to the Czech 
Statistical Office.
      
 "I would like to thank those who voted for me and also those who did not 
but came to the polls, because they made it clear they honoured democracy and 
cared about this country," Pavel said after the results showed his victory.
      
 "I can see that values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility have 
won in this election," he added.
      
 The 61-year-old Pavel will in March replace President Milos Zeman, an 
outspoken and divisive politician who fostered close ties with Moscow before 
making a U-turn when Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
     
  Turnout in the EU and NATO member country of 10.5 million people was 
unusually high at 70 percent following an acrimonious campaign marked by 
controversy.
      
 Babis and his family have been targeted by death threats, while Pavel was 
the victim of a hoax claiming he was dead as disinformation plagued the final 
campaign.
     
  "Our community is somewhat hurt by the presidential campaign, by the 
multiple crises we have faced and are facing, but also by the political style 
that has recently prevailed here," said Pavel.
       
"This has to change, and you have helped me to take the first step on the 
path towards this change."
      
 While the role is largely ceremonial, the Czech president names the 
government, picks the central bank governor and constitutional judges, and 
serves as commander of the armed forces.
      
 Voting for Pavel in the small town of Dobrichovice southwest of Prague, 
Irena Cihelkova told AFP the new president should "be forthcoming and friendly, 
an asset for the country, and not make problems abroad like some other Czech 
statesmen".
       - 'No better alternative' -
       
       
Pavel will be the fourth Czech president since the country's independence 
following its peaceful split with Slovakia in 1993, four years after former 
Czechoslovakia shed four decades of totalitarian communist rule.
      
 His predecessors were Vaclav Havel, an anti-communist dissident playwright 
who led the country from 1993-2003, economist Vaclav Klaus (2003-2013) and 
Zeman.
      
 A graduate of a military university, Pavel was decorated as a hero in the 
Serbo-Croatian war when he helped free French troops from a war zone.
      
 He rose to chief of the Czech general staff and chair of NATO's military 
committee.
      
 Like Babis, Pavel was a member of the Communist Party in the 1980s.
       
But the man with a carefully trimmed beard and white hair, who has a 
passion for powerful motorbikes, has since become a strong advocate of EU and 
NATO membership.
       
"We have no better alternative. We should use all opportunities offered by 
membership and try to change that which we don't like," he said on his campaign 
website.  
       
"Czechia is a sovereign state and a full member, therefore we can't just 
sit quietly, nod and then slam the result. We have to be more active and, at 
the same time, constructive."
      
 Pavel has vowed to be an independent president unaffected by party politics 
and to continue to support aid to war-torn Ukraine as well as its bid to become 
an EU member.
      
 "Naturally, Ukraine first has to meet all conditions to become a member, 
such as progress in battling corruption. But I believe it is entitled to get 
the same chance we got in the past," he said.
      
 Pavel has also backed same-sex marriage and child adoptions by same-sex 
couples.
     
  "I respect the principle of freedom and equality of all people under the 
law," he said. "I also believe we are a tolerant society."