PRAGUE (AP) — For the first time, citizens of the Czech Republic are electing a president, and their nine choices to replace euro-skeptic Vaclav Klaus run the full gamut: from veteran politicians to an artist whose entire body is tattooed.

If no candidate for the largely ceremonial post achieves a majority during the voting on Friday and Saturday — a likely scenario — the top two finishers will face each other in a runoff in two weeks' time.

"What I like about this is that common people have a say now," said Jiri Trojanek, a voter in Prague. "That it's not just in the hands of politicians."

Former leftist Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Jan Fischer, who led a caretaker government as prime minister in 2009-10, are the favorites, according to polls.

Unlike Klaus, both Zeman and Fischer have a more positive approach to the European Union, which the Czech Republic joined in 2004.

Klaus, a conservative, has repeatedly criticized the EU as too centralized, and warned that excessive regulation by Brussels may suppress competition.

Zeman is attempting to stage a return to power after he retired following a failure in the 2003 presidential election.

A chain smoker with a soft spot for alcohol, Zeman made international headlines as prime minister with outspoken comments. For example, he compared late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Adolf Hitler, drawing condemnations from the EU and the Arab League.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Zeman and his interior minister said they believed that hijacker Mohamed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2001. That purported meeting was cited as evidence of a possible al-Qaida connection to Iraq. The 9/11 commission later said such a meeting never happened.

By contrast, Fischer, a former head of the Statistics Office, gained significant popularity as prime minister avoiding controversies.

Since Czechoslovakia officially split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993, the republic has had two presidents elected by Parliament: Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus. But bickering during those votes led the legislature to give that decision to the general public.

Klaus' second and final five-year term in office expires March 7. Continued...