BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — A close ally of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico beat a pro-Western career diplomat to become Slovakia's new president, and succeed Zuzana Čaputová, the country's first female head of state.
Parliamentary speaker Peter Pellegrini received 53.26% of the vote with the ballots from almost all polling stations counted by the Statistics Office in Saturday's runoff election, topping former Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok who had 46.73%.
