PRAGUE, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Czech President Milos Zeman has collected 113,038 signatures of citizens in a petition entitling him to run in the presidential election in January 2018, Zeman's wife Ivana Zemanova announced at a press conference on Monday.
Zemanova, also chairwoman of his petition team, officially filed the application and submitted the petitions to the Czech Interior Ministry after the press conference.
Last week, Zeman said that he was running because his followers wished this and he did not want to disappoint them. He said he would feel like a coward if he spurned his followers, and he would like to continue with this work because it "is beautiful and interesting."
Klara Peknicova from the Czech Interior Ministry press department said on Monday that the ministry has registered ten contenders for the presidential campaign. Former science academy head Jiri Drahos and entrepreneur Michal Horacek are Zeman's main competitors.
According to a poll result released by Czech Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM) recently, about 34 percent of Czechs who plan to take part in the January presidential election would vote for Zeman, while 22 percent and 13 percent would back Drahos and Horacek respectively.
According to Czech law, candidates can take part in the presidential contest if they collect 50,000 signatures of citizens on their petitions, or the signatures of at least 20 deputies or at least 10 senators.
