None of the candidates, who in the beginning of February 2003 stood for the presidency, enjoyed strong public support. The number of supporters of any of the pretenders has not substantially surpassed the level of one third and in all cases these were outnumbered by their adversaries. Roughly the same level of preferences – a third of citizens – was achieved by candidates Petr Pithart, Otakar Motejl and Václav Klaus.
Miloš Zeman and similarly also Jaroslava Moserová were regarded as suitable candidates for the presidential office by one fifth of citizens. Václav Klaus, who was later successful in the third round of presidential elections, enjoyed preferences of ODS supporters but besides the ODS electorate his support was practically negligible.
