The longshot candidacy of a University of Michigan business professor for the presidency of the Czech Republic enjoys wide popular support in the Central European nation, a new poll suggests.

The scholar, a Czech native named Jan Svejnar, is director of the International Policy Center and a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is running against the incumbent president, Vaclav Klaus. Mr. Svejnar is backed by a coalition of center-left parties, including the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens, while Mr. Klaus is the candidate of the Civic Democrats.

The Czech president is elected not by popular vote but by members of the two chambers of the Czech legislature. A vote last Saturday failed to produce a winner by the necessary margin, with Mr. Klaus falling one vote shy of the 140-vote threshold. Another vote is scheduled for Friday.

Like Mr. Svejnar — whose wife, Katherine Terrell, is also on the Michigan faculty — Mr. Klaus is an economist and is also married to an economist. But, the Associated Press reported, “they differ widely on many key issues, including climate change and the role of the European Union. Klaus is skeptical of the E.U., while Svejnar wants the Czech Republic to adopt the euro as quickly as possible.” —Aisha Labi