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No more than nine candidates of 20 who registered to run in the presidential election this week will be eligible, the Interior Ministry's Klára Pěknicová confirmed on Friday. According to the official, 11 candidates did not fulfill the necessary legal requirements, either failing to submit enough signatures from the public or from lawmakers or filed after the Tuesday deadline.

A total of eight would-be candidates submitted no signatures at all.

Those running in the election on January 13th, 2018, range between the ages of 41 and 74.

Tuesday, November 7th, marked the last day in which individuals could register to run in next year’s presidential elections. The deadline to file with the Interior Ministry was 4 pm. In order to qualify for the ballot, candidates were required to gather 50,000 signatures from citizens, or had to win support from twenty MPs or 10 senators.

The Interior Ministry in the coming days will assess which candidates met the legal requirements, and also verify a randomly chosen sample of signatures for each entry. A total of 18 candidates reportedly filed by Tuesday, but it is not yet clear whether all met the legal conditions.

The first round of voting in the presidential elections is to take place on January 12-13, with a runoff to be held a fortnight later if required.

A new poll conducted by the Median agency has suggested that presidential candidate Jiří Drahoš, the former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, would make it into the second round of the presidential election in January and would narrowly defeat the incumbent, Miloš Zeman, by a total of 51 percent to 49 percent.

The poll was conducted in the month of October; a month earlier, the poll suggested Drahoš would finish with 55.5 percent of the vote. The poll did not take into account the candidacy of latecomer former prime minister Mirek Topolánek, who announced his intention to run this week.

Another poll, conducted by CVVM and published on Monday, also suggested Mr Drahoš would make it into the second round. According to that survey, 34 percent would vote for the incumbent, 22 percent for Mr Drahoš and 13 percent for lyricist Michal Horáček.

The race for president, hereto overshadowed by the general elections, is gathering momentum. November 7th is the deadline for registering in the elections and over the next eight weeks the candidates registered will start campaigning in earnest.

The Czech presidential race heated up significantly on Sunday with an announcement by former prime minister Mirek Topolánek that he would throw his hat in the ring in the upcoming presidential election. He has since acquired ten senatorial signatures and can now file to run.

President Miloš Zeman has collected 113,000 signatures from the public in support of his presidential candidacy and has officially registered in the race for president.

At a press briefing in Prague at which he appeared with his wife Ivana who supervised the team of volunteers collecting signatures, Zeman thanked his supporters and said he was ready to take on his rivals in the race. He refused to comment on who he considered the most serious rival for the country’s top post.

The deadline for registering in the presidential elections is Tuesday, November 7th. There are currently 12 candidates running for the country’s top post.

Former prime minister Mirek Topolánek has confirmed his intention to run for president in next year’s presidential elections. Topolánek said he had sought support across the political spectrum and had collected the necessary ten signatures from senators. The former leader of the Civic Democratic Party told Czech Television his decision was motivated by the turn of events following the general elections and the possibility that a government could run the country without a vote of confidence.

The head of the Civic Democratic Party Petr Fiala welcomed the decision saying Topolánek was an experienced politician with a good grasp of international affairs.

Former prime minister Mirek Topolánek may enter the race for president, the news site novinky.cz reported .According to the news site Topolánek is seeking to gain support from the Civic Democratic Party’s ten senators, the precise number of signatures he would need for his candidacy.

Topolánek himself has neither confirmed this possibility, nor ruled it out, saying he would decide in the next few days. The deadline for registering in the presidential race is Tuesday, November 7th. There are currently 12 candidates in the running, including the incumbent head of state Miloš Zeman.

Jiří Drahoš, the former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, has officially filed his candidacy with the Interior Ministry to run in the presidential election in January 2018, with the deadline of November 7 looming. The presidential hopeful gathered more than 142,000 signatures for his bid, a minimum 50,000 was needed.

The candidate said the total was even higher but that some 15,000 signatures were disqualified for irregularities.

Mr Drahoš told journalists that he wanted to serve his country and fight not only for the Czech Republic but also for “a better and safer Europe”. Since announcing his intention to run, betting agencies have had Mr Drahoš in first and second place against the incumbent, Miloš Zeman.

Doctor and activist Marek Hilšer says he has won enough support from members of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, to run in upcoming presidential elections. Hilšer declared in a press conference Thursday that he had backing from 11 senators and the signatures would be presented to the Ministry of Interior the same day. Hilšer should join another seven candidates, including current head of state Miloš Zeman, who have said they will run.