BRATISLAVA — Slovaks began voting Saturday for a new president with the favorite an outsider whose anti-corruption stance has resonated with voters still reeling from the fallout from an investigative journalist’s murder.

An environmental lawyer with no experience in political office, Zuzana Caputova could become the EU and eurozone member’s first female president.

Her rival in the run-off election is the ruling party’s candidate, EU energy commissioner and career diplomat Maros Sefcovic.

Two recent opinion polls give at least 60 percent of the vote to Caputova, who ran on a slogan of “Stand up to evil”, telling AFP that “People are calling for change” in the central European country of 5.4 million.

She was among tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who rallied last year after journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were gunned down as he was preparing to publish a story on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia.

Then prime minister Robert Fico was forced to resign but remains the leader of the populist-left Smer-SD party and is a close ally of the current premier.

Five people have been charged in the Kuciak case, including a millionaire businessman with alleged ties to Smer-SD who is suspected of having ordered the murders.

The European Parliament urged Slovakia on Thursday to continue to investigate, “including any possible political links to the crimes.”

MEPs voiced “concern about the allegations of corruption, conflicts of interest, impunity and revolving doors in Slovakia’s circles of power.”

The Smer-SD has backed Sefcovic, support that appears not to have served him well, as the 52-year-old took just 19 percent of the vote in the first round of the election compared with Caputova’s 40 percent.

The slain journalist’s brother is among voters who have ruled out Sefcovic because of his ties to the political establishment.

“I will not vote for someone supported by oligarchs and their people who have deprived me of my brother and sister-in-law,” Jozef Kuciak wrote on his Facebook page earlier this week.

“I will definitely vote for Ms. Caputova.”

Analysts compare the 45-year-old divorced mother of two to French President Emmanuel Macron, an outsider who swept to power in 2017 on a reformist agenda.

“A similar story unfolded during the last presidential election in France, where the representative of the new political trend and a new political movement prevailed,” analyst Aneta Vilagi told AFP.

But fellow analyst Juraj Marusiak cautioned that the comparison also came with a darker side as “Caputova, like Macron, is a symbol of a very hazily defined hope.”

“Their programs were formulated within vague contours, so they can also bring great disappointment,” he said.

Caputova’s campaign promises include environmental protection, better care for the elderly and justice for all.

“I intend to actively initiate systematic changes that would deprive prosecutors and the police of political influence,” Caputova said. — AFP