After reporter's murder, government critic tipped to win Slovak poll

A vocal government critic was expected to take the lead in round one of the Slovak presidential election Saturday, the first ballot since an investigative journalist's murder dealt a blow to the political establishment.

Frontrunner Zuzana Caputova, 45, was among tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets after the killing, which shocked the nation and raised fears about media freedom and political corruption.

They were the largest anti-government protests since communist times in the central European country of 5.4 million people, which spent decades behind the Iron Curtain before joining the European Union, the eurozone and NATO.

While most polling stations closed at on Saturday evening, voting was extended by an hour in the eastern village of Medzany after a man ran out with the ballot box and threw it to the ground, scattering its contents on the street. 

Opinion polls give the environmental lawyer a double-digit lead over European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, a 52-year-old career diplomat backed by the ruling Smer-SD party, in the race for the largely ceremonial post. 

"Caputova attracts those who abhor corruption and are dissatisfied with what they...