BRATISLAVA: Slovak millionaire turned philanthropist Andrej Kiska is banking on his image as an untainted political novice in his improbable bid for the presidency.
The self-made consumer credit tycoon, who reinvented himself as a professional do-gooder, emerged from obscurity to become a serious threat to veteran leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, his rival in a March 29 run-off election.
The 51-year-old Kiska, a twice-married father of four, insists he has the "heart, brains and character" to be Slovakia's next head of state.
He has cultivated a down-to-earth image to deflect criticism of his inexperience and lack of charisma, resonating with voters disillusioned by corruption scandals implicating right-wing politicians in 2011.
"Traditional politicians do not deal with the real problems of real people, so I decided to run for president in order to try and change that," he told AFP.
Bratislava-based pollster Pavol Haulik believes Kiska could appeal to voters who are "looking for someone who hasn't let them down yet".
Kiska, pointing to his humble roots in Poprad, a poor provincial town nestled in the foothills of the northern High Tatra mountains, insists he relates better to the problems of ordinary people than politicians from the affluent capital Bratislava.
Self-made man:
His own story of hard-earned financial success is also a selling point with voters, and lends credence to his pledges to improve public health care and social welfare, analysts say.
Kiska emigrated to the United States in 1990, a year after communism's demise in what was then Czechoslovakia.
In what he has called his "road to hell and back", Kiska learned valuable life lessons by working long hours in construction and retail to make ends meet.
He returned home in 1992 to launch two successful micro-credit companies, Triangel and Quatro, a savvy business move targeting the consumer boom on the flourishing free market.
Kiska capitalised on their success in 2005, selling off his company shares to Slovakia's VUB bank owned by the Italian group Intesa Sanpaolo and using the money to launch Dobry Anjel (Good Angel), which helps terminally ill children and is the country's top charity.
Kiska was named Slovakia's "Manager of the Year" in 2006 and won another top accolade for philanthropy in 2011.
He floated his presidential bid a year later, long before any of his rivals, while his reputation was at its glowing best.
The self-proclaimed euro enthusiast also insists that as a centrist president he could be a valuable counterweight to the powerful leftist government of presidential rival Fico, which enjoys a comfortable parliamentary majority.
If elected, the millionaire who would become the first non-communist and non-partisan president since Slovakia won independence in 1993 has vowed to donate his salary to charity for the entire five-year term.
"I believe that those who have received a lot from life have the duty to give back," he said.
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