October 31 (SeeNews) - Slovenian member of the European Parliament Lojze Peterle will face former senior U.N. diplomat Danilo Turk in a run-off vote for president of the country that will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2008, final results from the State Election Commission indicated on Wednesday.
A run-off will be held on November 11 because none of the seven candidates that ran for president on October 21 had won more than 50% of the vote.
Peterle, an independent supported by three major parties from the centre-right government coalition, had won 28.73% of the valid 986,429 votes in the first round.
Turk, supported by centre-left parties, came second with 24.47% support, while Mitja Gaspari, a former Slovenian central bank governor, was a close third with 24.09%.
Turnout was 57.67% of the 1.7 million eligible voters.
Slovenia is a parliamentary republic in which the president has limited powers and his position is largely ceremonial, although he is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is limited to two consecutive five-year terms of office. The term of the incumbent left-wing head of state, Janez Drnovsek, expires in December.