Natasa Pirc Musar, a Slovenian lawyer who was hired by former US First Lady Melania Trump in 2016 for a case, has been elected as the country’s first-ever female President.
Musar will take office on December 23 when the second mandate of the incumbent President Borut Pahor expires, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to preliminary results after about 98 per cent of the votes were counted on Sunday, Musar received 54 per cent of the ballots against 46 per cent going to her rival Anze Logar, who is a former Foreign Minister and a member of the opposition center-right Slovenian Democratic Party.
In the first round of the presidential election last month, Logar received the most votes among seven candidates with Musar clinching second place.
Musar, 54, is a lawyer, a former journalist and a former national Information Commissioner who oversees the security of personal data and general access to public information in the country.
She ran as an independent candidate but was in the second round supported by Prime Minister Robert Golob’s centre-left Freedom Movement and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democrats.
In 2016, Musar and her client filed a lawsuit against Suzy magazine in Slovenia for suggesting Melania Trump, who was born in the Central European nation, had worked as a high-end escort while pursuing her international modelling career.
An out-of-court settlement was reached.
Although the role is mainly ceremonial, the President is the head of the Slovenian army and has the right to nominate many high officials.
Most of the nominations have to be confirmed by Parliament.