Populist former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis is narrowly ahead in an opinion poll released Sunday ahead of next week’s presidential election, dpa reported, Agerpres reported.

Babish, the founder of ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens), won the support of 27.9% of respondents.

The poll, conducted by the polling institute STEM, put Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, in second place with 26.7% of the voting options, and economist Danuse Nerudova, a former chancellor of the University of Brno, in third place with 24.4%.

What makes Babish different from other candidates

The other six candidates are far behind, with less than 10% of the vote.

If no candidate wins an outright majority in the January 13-14 election, the top two candidates will face off in a runoff two weeks later.

The poll shows that Babis, who is seen as a divisive figure, would lose to Pavla or Nerudova in a straight fight.

President Milos Zeman ends his term of office on March 8, having served two mandates provided for in the constitution.

Babis, a wealthy businessman, is awaiting sentencing, possibly as early as Monday, on charges that he was complicit in subsidy fraud related to the project, which is partly funded by the EU. He was the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021.

The European Commission accused him of abusing the position of prime minister to secure financial advantages for his company Agrofert.