Former Slovene prime minister Lojze Peterle, who helped lead the country to independence from Yugoslavia and had hoped to return to power in a weekend presidential election, was forced into a run-off after receiving less than a third of votes.
The conservative Peterle "lost and won" Sunday's election, one newspaper said yesterday, noting that the former prime minister's backing was far weaker than had been expected.
The vote comes two months before the country takes over the rotating, six-month presidency of the EU.
None of the candidates for the nation's largely ceremonial presidency was expected to change course in Slovenia's ties with Europe or Washington.
RUN-OFF NECESSARY
With nearly all of the votes counted, Peterle was ahead with 28.5 percent, far short of the 50 percent needed for an outright victory, the Electoral Commission said.
Turnout was 57 percent.
"It was a tough, tough fight," Peterle said late on Sunday. "I'm pleased that I was able to move to the second round."
However, Peterle, a member of the European Parliament, acknowledged: "All of us expected better results today."
"Peterle moved into the run-off as a winner, even though he actually was the biggest loser," political analyst Meta Roglic wrote in the Dnevnik daily, noting that he had been expected to achieve a convincing lead.
Dnevnik's front page said: "Peterle lost and won."
Peterle, 59, a conservative, campaigned as an independent and has the backing of Prime Minister Janez Jansa's center-right government. He served as Slovenia's prime minister when the country declared independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. He later served as foreign minister.
NO. 2 UNDECIDED
Longtime diplomat Danilo Tuerk could become Peterle's rival in the run-off, scheduled to be held on Nov. 11. Tuerk won 24.7 percent of votes -- 4 percent less than Peterle.
Former Central Bank governor Mitja Gaspari trailed Tuerk by less than a percentage point, and there was a slim chance he could move into the No. 2 position, as votes cast by Slovenians abroad may not be fully counted for another week.
Still, Tuerk, who was ambassador to the UN and is a former UN assistant secretary-general, was confident he would make the run-off, saying, "I'm satisfied. I was clearly placed in the second round."
Gaspari, who is credited with the country's smooth adoption of the euro currency in January, said he would not comment until all votes were counted.
While officially independent, Gaspari and Tuerk were each backed by a different center-left opposition party.
The results reflected the tight battle to replace longtime leader Janez Drnovsek -- prime minister from 1992 to 2002 and then the president -- who has decided to leave politics.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition