On Saturday, Slovaks will elect their future president in a second round between current Prime Minister Robert Fico, a social-democrat, and businessman Andrej Kiska, who is an independent candidate. Fico won the first round with 28 percent of all votes while Kiska came second at 24 percent of the cast ballots.
A lawyer born in the Western Slovak town of Topoľčany, the 49 year old Fico specialised in criminal and human rights law. He began his political career as a member of the Communist Party then he formed his own party, the current Smer-Social Democracy, which at the most recent parliamentary elections won a majority of seats in Parliament. Fico is currently at his second mandate as Slovakia’s Prime Minister.
The 50 year old businessman and philanthropist Andrej Kiska studied electrical technology but had professionally focused on business in the loans industry. When he left that industry he started a charity and developed it into the biggest of its kind in Slovakia. In the year 2006 he was named Manager of the year by subscribers of the monthly Trend and in the year 2011 he was awarded the Crystal Wing award in the category philanthropy. In this presidential election he is running as a non-partisan, independent candidate.
