Nov 11, 2007, 20:46 GMT
Ljubljana - Slovenians on Sunday again elected a candidate of the political left as president, overwhelmingly backing Danilo Turk in a run-off against conservative Lojze Peterle.
An international law professor and a former high-ranking United Nations official, Turk, 55, claimed nearly 69 per cent of the votes cast, according to partial official figures. Backed by the left-wing opposition, he said his victory was a 'celebration of democracy.'
'My political programme is very rich, and I'm very happy because though a political novice, I was able to persuade the voters,' Turk said.
He is to be sworn into office on December 23.
The result was announced with 90 per cent of ballots counted.
Despite winning the October 21 first-round vote and running with the support of conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa's coalition, Peterle, 59, the first premier of the independent Slovenia and now a European Parliament deputy, was without a real chance to win the election.
Political analysts estimated that Peterle was hurt both by presenting himself as a 'liberal conservative' and by Jansa's lagging popularity, fuelled by a 5.1-per-cent inflation rate since Slovenia adopted the euro at the start of the year.
'The current political and economic circumstances did not exactly favour me,' Peterle lamented.
His defeat is a hard blow to Jansa, with Slovenia due to hold parliamentary elections next year.
Turk dismissed predictions that he and Jansa were heading into a state of permanent conflict.
'I want to be a president who connects various political blocs,' he said.
Turk would succeed the gravely ill Janez Drnovsek, who is battling cancer and did not seek re-election, to become the third president from the political left since Slovenia gained independence in 1991, after Milan Kucan twice and Drnovsek since 2002.
The office of the president carries largely ceremonial authority in Slovenia, the only former Yugoslav republic so far to join the European Union and NATO, both in 2004.
The tiny Alpine-Adriatic country assumes the rotating half-year presidency of the EU on January 1.
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