Havel Reelected President on 2nd Vote

President Vaclav Havel, leader of the 1989 democratic revolution that overthrew Communist rule, narrowly won reelection to a new five-year term after two tense rounds of voting by Parliament. Havel, a 61-year-old former dissident playwright, polled 99 lower house votes, a majority of one among the 197 deputies present, and 47 in the 81-member upper house, as the only candidate in a second round. Seeking reelection to his second and final term allowed by the constitution, Havel had earlier failed to secure the outright first-round victory many had expected, falling 10 votes short of the required absolute majority in the lower house and two shy in the upper house. His challengers, Stanislav Fischer of the Communist Party and ultra-right Republican Party leader Miroslav Sladek, gained insufficient votes to proceed to a second round.