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Voting has ended in the first round of Slovakia's presidential election, and early results show the favorite candidates in a lead.

The Slovak statistics Office says that Zuzana Caputova has 38.87 percent of the vote with ballots from over 30 percent of polling stations counted on Saturday. The 45-year-old environmental and anti-corruption activist is in favor of gay rights and opposes a ban on abortion in the conservative Roman Catholic country.

Her strongest challenger Maros Sefcovic, an establishment figure who is the European Commission Vice-President, was running distant second with 18.83 percent. A pro-Russian candidate Stefan Harabin was third with 14.64 percent.

Andrej Kiska, a successful businessman-turned-philanthropist, is not standing for a second five-year term in the largely ceremonial post.

If no single candidate wins a majority on Saturday, a runoff will be held on March 30 in this central European nation of 5.4 million people.

Final results are expected Sunday.