Politics of Slovakia - Political Parties and Elections

Political Parties and Elections

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot.

Presidential election: The president is elected by direct, popular vote, under the two round system, for a five-year term. Two rounds of the last election were held on March 21 and April 4, 2009 (next to be held 2014).

Parliamentary election: Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the Narodna Rada, are elected directly for a 4-year term, under the proportional representation system. Like the Netherlands, the country is a single multi-member constituency. Voters may indicate their preferences within the semi-open list. The election threshold is 5%. Last elections were hold on June 12, 2010.

For other political parties see List of political parties in Slovakia. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Slovakia.
e • d Summary of the 10 March 2012 Slovak National Council election results
Parties Ideology Votes % Seats ±
Direction – Social Democracy Social democracy 1,134,280 44.41 83 +21
Christian Democratic Movement Christian democracy 225,361 8.82 16 +1
Ordinary People and Independent Personalities Conservatism 218,537 8.55 16 *
Most–Híd Hungarian minority interest 176,088 6.89 13 −1
Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party Liberal conservatism 155,744 6.09 11 −17
Freedom and Solidarity Classical liberalism 150,266 5.88 11 −11
Slovak National Party Nationalism 116,420 4.55 0 −9
Party of the Hungarian Coalition Hungarian minority interest 109,483 4.28 0 0
99 Percent – Civic Voice 40,488 1.58 0 *
People's Party – Our Slovakia Nationalism 40,460 1.58 0 0
Change from the Bottom, Democratic Union of Slovakia 33,155 1.29 0 *
Free Word Party of Nora Mojsejová 31,159 1.22 0 *
Others 122,285 4.77
Total (turnout 59.11%) 2,553,726 150
Source: Statistics Bureau of Slovakia
e • d Summary of the 21 March and 4 April 2009 Slovak presidential election results
Candidates and nominating parties 1st round 2nd round
Votes % Votes %
Ivan Gašparovič (Smer, SNS, HZD) 876,061 46.71 1,234,787 55.53
Iveta Radičová (SDKÚ–DS, SMK, KDH, OKS) 713,735 38.05 988,808 44.47
František Mikloško (KDS) 101,573 5.42
Zuzana Martináková (SF) 96,035 5.12
Milan Melník (HZDS) 45,985 2.45
Dagmara Bollová 21,378 1.14
Milan Sidor (KSS) 20,862 1.11
Total (turnout 43.63% / 51.67%) 1,875,629 100.00 2,223,595 100.00
Sources: statistics.sk, volbysr.sk

Other election results:

-EU parliament, see European Parliament election, 2009 (Slovakia)
-Regions, see Slovak regional elections, 2005
-local authorities, see Slovak local authority election, 2002
-older elections, see Elections in Slovakia

Political parties: The Slovak political scene supports a wide spectrum of political parties including the communists (KSS) and the nationalists (SNS). New parties arise and old parties cease to exist or merge at a frequent rate. Major parties are members of the European political parties. Some parties have regional strongholds, for example SMK is supported mainly by the Hungarian minority living in southern Slovakia. Although the main political cleavage in the 1990s concerned the somewhat authoritarian policy of HZDS, the left-right conflict over economic reforms (principally between Direction - Social Democracy and Slovak Democratic and Christian Union - Democratic Party) has recently become the dominant power in Slovakia's politics.

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