Slovaks began voting Saturday in round one of a presidential election that a vocal government critic is poised to win after an investigative journalist's murder dealt a blow to the ruling elite.
Frontrunner Zuzana Caputova, 45, was among tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets of the eurozone country of 5.4 million last year after the killing raised concerns about media freedom and political corruption.
Opinion polls give the environmental lawyer and mother of two a double-digit lead over European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, a 52-year-old career diplomat backed by the ruling Smer-SD party.
Caputova may have also got a last-minute boost after prosecutors charged a businessman believed to have ties to Smer-SD with ordering the murder of the journalist.
Yet, voters could interpret progress in the case as a sign of a functioning government.
"This election offers a set of choices about the coming direction of Slovakia's politics," said Kevin Deegan-Krause, an expert on central Europe at Wayne State University.
"Caputova attracts those who abhor corruption and who are dissatisfied with what they see as an increasingly... self-dealing government," he told AFP.
"Sefcovic appeals to those with a certain satisfaction with the progress of a country which, by many indicators, has not done at all badly over the last decade."
"On the other hand, this could also be a vindication for Caputova, as she is the symbol of change."
Maria Pavlova, a 67-year-old from the southern town of Nove Zamky, said "Slovakia is ready to have its first female president."