BRATISLAVA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Incumbent President Ivan Gasparovic beat opposition candidate Iveta Radicova and was re-elected in Saturday's runoff, according to final results released by the statistics office.

    Gasparovic, 68, garnered 55.53 percent of the votes, while Radicova, 52, got 44.47 percent of the ballots.

    The turnout exceeded 51 percent in the country with more than 4 million registered voters.

    "I am thankful to all the people and I promise I will always work for them," Gasparovic said.

    Official results were expected to be announced by the national election committee later Sunday.

    In the first round on March 21, Gasparovic won 46.71 percent ofthe vote, almost 9 percent ahead of Radicova. But both failed to accumulate over 50 percent of the ballot to win outright.

    Gasparovic is running with the backing of Prime Minister Robert Fico's Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) and the ultra nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS), two partners of the three-party governing coalition.

    Radicova, vice chairwoman of the main opposition Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party (SDKU-DS), is supported by SDKU-DS, the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) and the Christian Democrats (KDH).