Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993 TAG: 9301270028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC LENGTH: Medium
HAVEL NEW CZECH PRESIDENT
The Czech Republic's Parliament Tuesday elected Vaclav Havel as the first president of the newly independent state, six months after he resigned as president of the now defunct Czechoslovak federation.The former dissident who helped lead the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989 received 109 votes in the 200-member Parliament. A crowd outside greeted the results with chants of "Havel to the castle!"
Slovakia also held its presidential election Tuesday, but none of the four candidates received the required three-fifths majority in the Slovak Parliament. It will try again today in a runoff vote between the top two candidates.
Havel defeated Marie Stiborova of the Communist Party of Bo- Havel hemia and Moravia, who received 49 votes. Miroslav Sladek of the ultra right-wing Association for the Republic-Czechoslovak Republican Party received 14. Sladek's Republican Party led a filibuster that added a bizarre element to the election, postponing the vote by four hours as party members delivered lengthy speeches attacking Havel.
Havel, 56, was Czechoslovak president from December 1989 to July 1992, devoting much of his term to trying to hold the country together.
On Monday, about 1,500 Czechs marched through the city in support of Havel's candidacy, chanting "Long Live Havel!" At the demonstration, organizer Antonin Votava said, "Had it not been for Havel, we would not be free citizens in a free democratic country today."
Havel, however, no longer enjoys the virtually unanimous support he did in his first two years as president. The former dissident's public approval rating in polls once was above 70 percent but has dropped to 44 percent.