Volby 2002 - Slovak General Election
A report on the 2002 Slovak Elections, by David James,
on behalf of the Slovakia - Heart of Europe web site
Friday, early evening, on the 20th September 2002, and all across the country the people of Slovakia are arriving at polling stations to vote for their next government. Voters casting their votes today, else on Saturday before 14:00, do so with the knowledge that this particular election will have a huge impact on their country's future.
The Slovak General Election (Volby) is slightly more complicated than elections back home. The Slovak voter doesn't just have to decide whether to vote for a left-wing, center, or right-wing party, instead they must choose between an incredible 25 political parties. With so many different parties, splitting so many of the votes, an outsider may be forgiven for thinking that it's all a bit of a lottery.
Volby 2002 is of particular importance to Slovakia. Membership to NATO and the European Union is not that far off for this small central European country, with a population of less than 6 million. However, it has been made crystal clear to Slovakia that she will not be allowed to join either organization if former Prime Minister, Vladimir Meciar, is to play any part whatsoever in the new government.
It was Meciar's HZDS party that led the various opinion polls leading up to the elections, extremely popular with pensioners throughout the country. In second place, not far behind HZDS was the young, populist lawyer, Robert Fico, and his SMER (direction) party. SMER had carried out an extensive election campaign, and the opinion polls showed that the youthful Fico was extremely popular amongst the country's first time voters. However, if the opinion polls were to be believed, neither of these left wing parties would secure the 51% of votes needed to form a government. It looked odds on that Slovakia would have another coalition government ruling the country, and as it was unlikely that any party would side with the Meciar-led HZDS, Fico was perhaps the favorite to be Slovakia's next Prime Minister.
Prime Minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, leads the current SDK government, a coalition of a number of parties from throughout the political spectrum formed just before the 1998 elections. Responsible for lifting Slovakia from the position of the black sheep of Central Europe, to a country on the brink of EU membership, Dzurinda is very well respected in the West. However, the tough economic measures that were needed to transform Slovakia have come at a price, and at home Dzurinda is largely seen as the man who has brought mass unemployment and rising prices to the country. Indeed, leading up to election the opinion polls showed Dzurinda's new party, the SDKU, lying in third place, and a long way behind HZDS and SMER.
But then opinion polls rarely get these things spot on, and so on Friday afternoon, as my wife and her family went to a nearby school to cast their votes, I had a feeling that Volby 2002 was going to be a close run thing.
***
My wife's old primary school had been transformed into a polling station for two days, and that is where we found ourselves at 7 o'clock, Friday evening. Outside a room containing two voting booths and a number of officials, hanged a placard listing the candidates for each of the 25 parties, side-by-side with a display of young children's paintings.
As well as choosing a party, the Slovak voters also had to decide on their preferred four candidates to represent them. While Ria and her parents went and voted, I stayed outside and studied the other 22 runners and riders, some of which may well have a part to play in a coalition government. As well as HZDS, SMER and SDKU, the other main parties in the running were the right of center, ANO, the Christian Democratic party, KDH, and the party representing the large Hungarian minority in Slovakia, the SMK. Other parties that sprang to the eye were the Communist Party (KSS), the Nationalist Party (SNS), and the delightfully named "Women and Family" party.
After Ria and her family had voted, we went on to the nearest pub, and like many others around us, we discussed how we thought the elections would pan out and who would be the best man to lead Slovakia over the next four years.
Saturday night, with the voting completed, we sat and watched an Election Special on Markiza, where the leaders of each of the top seven parties debated how the election was going and all the possible outcomes.A notable absentee from the program was Mr. Meciar.
On the program, the exit polls showed that HZDS were likely to win the most votes as expected, but the real surprises were firstly, how well the four right wing parties, SDKU, SMK, KDH and ANO were doing, and secondly, how badly SMER was doing. The biggest surprise of all though was the fact that the Communist Party, KSS, looked like they would secure an incredible 6% of the votes and come in seventh place.
By 10 o'clock, Sunday morning, the official results were in.
***
The top seven of the 25 parties were as follows:
* HZDS - 19.50% of votes cast - 560,691 votes - 36 seats
* SDKU - 15.09% of votes cast - 433,953 votes - 28 seats
* SMER - 13.46% of votes cast - 387,100 votes - 25 seats
* SMK - 11.16% of votes cast - 321,000 votes - 20 seats
* KDH - 8.25% of votes cast - 237,202 votes - 15 seats
* ANO - 8.01% of votes cast - 230,309 votes - 15 seats
* KSS - 6.32% of votes cast - 181,872 votes - 11 seats
President Schuster has given the leading parties 30 days to put forward a proposal for a new coalition government. It is highly unlikely that either Meciar's HZDS or Fico's SMER will be able to get the support they need to form a coalition government.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Mikulas Dzurinda has already put forward a proposal for a coalition between SDKU, SMK, KDH and ANO (together they have 78 seats, three more than the seventy five required), with himself as Prime Minister. It is thought that President Schuster is likely to accept this proposal within the next week.
Thus it looks odds on that Slovakia will now have a right of center coalition government for the next four years. Of course, this is exactly the result that Europe and America were hoping for, and Slovakia's chances of gaining NATO and EU membership has increased dramatically.
So, Volby 2002 appears to have been a very successful election for Slovakia - let's all hope that this proves to be the case.
(In case you were wondering the "Women and Family" party managed to get 12,646 votes, which was 0.43% of all votes cast).
