(JTA) — Czech Jewish presidential candidate Jan Fischer failed to reach the second round of voting, despite being considered a leading contender.
Fischer, aiming to become the country’s first Jewish president, finished third among the nine candidates with 16.4 percent of the vote, according to the Times of Israel.
The top two finishers in the balloting held Friday and Saturday advanced to a runoff.
Fischer, who had served briefly as prime minister of the Czech Republic following the collapse of the government coalition in 2009, had slipped from first to second in the polls following a lackluster performance in a televised debate.
His father was a Holocaust survivor and his mother was Catholic.
Fischer is a former head of the Czech Statistical Office and vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
