Retired Nato general Petr Pavel has been elected as the new president of the Czech Republic, seeing off his populist challenger Andrej Babis.

The 61-year-old took 57.6% of the vote, initial results released by the state statistics office showed.

Mr Babis - who served as prime minister between 2017 and 2021 - conceded defeat in a speech to supporters soon after the results were announced.

The ex-general will replace Milos Zeman, whose second term ends in March.

The second-round runoff between Mr Babis and Mr Pavel was portrayed as a contest between populist oligarchy and liberal democracy.

The elections' results follow an ill-tempered campaign marred by alleged death threats and disinformation.

It should be noted that the loser was strongly against the Czech Republic giving aid to Ukraine. He had also said that if Poland was attacked by the Russians, he wouldn't send Czech troops to fight .