The first round of the 2018 presidential election was held in the Czech Republic on 12–13 January 2018. As no candidate won a majority, a run-off election between the top two candidates, Jiří Drahoš and President Miloš Zeman, will be held on 26–27 January 2018. In the first round voters chose between nine candidates who qualified for the election either by gathering 50,000 signatures from the public, 10 signatures from Senators or 20 signatures from members of the Chamber of Deputies (MPs). Incumbent president Miloš Zeman, running for re-election to his second and last term, finished first with 38%, followed by former President of the Czech Academy of Sciences Jiří Drahoš, who received 26%.Former Prime Minister Miloš Zeman was elected as President of the Czech Republic in 2013, defeating Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg in the country's first direct presidential elections. Until 2012, all presidential elections in the Czech Republic were indirect, with the president being chosen by the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The political system of the Czech Republic is a multi-party system. Since 1993, the two largest parties were Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and Civic Democratic Party (ODS). This model changed in early 2014, with the rise of a new political party ANO 2011 which led to weakening of both major parties. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated the Czech Republic as "flawed democracy" in 2016.
As the system in the Czech Republic repeatedly produces very weak governments (a specific problem is that about 15% of the electorate support the Communists, who are shunned by all the other parties) there is constant talk about changing it but without much chance of really pushing the reform through. An attempt to increase majority elements by tweaking the system parameters (more smaller districts, D'Hondt method used) by ČSSD and ODS during their "opposition agreement" of 1998–2002 was vehemently opposed by smaller parties and blocked by the Constitutional Court as going too much against the constitution-stated proportional principle; only a moderated form was adopted. This, however, led to a stalemate in the 2006 elections where both the left and the right each gained exactly 100 seats; as many commentators point out, the earlier system would have given the right a 3–4 seat majority.According to polls conducted in 2016, Zeman was the front-runner and his chances of re-election were considered high, although it was speculated that Zeman's candidacy would be determined by his health. Zeman announced his candidacy on 9 March 2017. There was speculation that both the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and ANO 2011 may endorse Zeman, but neither party did in the end. Some commentators speculated that Zeman could be elected in the first round. On 23 August 2017, the Speaker of the Senate announced that the first round would be held on 12 and 13 January 2018, with a second round being held on 26 and 27 January 2018, if required. The deadline for nominating candidates was scheduled for 7 November 2017.
