Peter Pellegrini is the new president of Slovakia after winning the second round of the elections.
With a 99.6% count, Pellegrini gathered the support of 53.26% of voters against 46.73% for his opponent Ivan Korcok. Both candidates received more than a million votes - 1,402,570 and 1,230,379 respectively.
Shortly before midnight, Korcok congratulated Pellegrini on the victory and expressed hope that he would act "without orders from the government".
"I'm disappointed. Fear decided the election,” Korcok said.
"I will never forget what you did to me," added the former diplomat in response to the smear campaign against him. Pellegrini and the ruling coalition portray him as a "war president" because he supports Ukraine.
Peter Pellegrini is the leader of the Hlas-SD party, a coalition partner of the ruling "Smer" and the current speaker of the parliament.
Polling stations across the country closed at 10:00 p.m. local time (11:00 p.m. Bulgarian).
Slovaks voted in a race that is more contested than ever, with the war in neighboring Ukraine creating conflicting positions on the part of Bratislava.
Korcok is pro-Western and Pellegrini is skeptical of Kiev.
Russia's incursion into neighboring Ukraine has become a key issue in the election campaign in the EU and NATO member state of 5.4 million, especially after Prime Minister Robert Fizzo, a Pellegrini ally, questioned Kiev's sovereignty and called for peace with Moscow. Pellegrini was a minister in the previous governments of Robert Fizzo.
In power since October last year, the government made up of Fico's Smer party, Pellegrini's Glas party and the small far-right SNS party cut off military aid to Ukraine.
Korcok, a fierce critic of the government and supported by the opposition, is staunchly pro-Ukraine.
On March 23, the liberal defeated Pellegrini in the first round.
The anti-European and pro-Russian Stefan Harabin, who then finished third with 12% of the vote, did not officially support any of the candidates before the second round. /BGNES
