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Run-off likely in Slovenian presidential vote - polls
Real estate news By Thomson Financial
10.15.07, 2:42 AM ET Oct 11 2007
Slovenian presidential elections next weekend will likely lead to a run-off vote as none of the seven candidates is expected to win an absolute majority, opinion polls show. Sunday's vote, in which the incumbent Janez Drnovsek is not running, represents a key test for Prime Minister Janez Jansa's centre-right coalition, which has suffered a serious drop in public support a year ahead of parliamentary elections.
The new president, the third since Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, will also head the tiny Alpine state when it takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union in January. The president however plays a largely ceremonial role in Slovenia, where the the prime minister is the key political player. Unlike in previous years, candidates have maintained a low profile during the campaign, holding smaller rallies and meetings in villages and towns, with only a limited number of giant posters and advertisements posted in the street. Former prime minister and member of the European Parliament Lojze Peterle is currently the frontrunner with 38 pct support, according to polls carried out by the two main Slovenian dailies Delo and Dnevnik.
Peterle, a 59-year-old geographer and economist who has the backing of Jansa's four-party coalition, has based his presidential campaign on his experience as head of Slovenia's first democratically-elected government (1990-1992), which secured Slovenia's independence from the now defunct Yugoslavia. With the added support of top delegates in the European People's Party (EPP), Peterle has managed to portray himself as the 'people's politician,' taking a harmonica out of his pocket from time to time to play popular Slovenian folk songs .
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