The official parliamentary mandate certificates were handed over today to 146 of the 150 lawmakers elected to the next four-year term in parliament in the 12 June elections, while the four absentees (Pavol Paska – Smer-SD, Ivan Chaban – SDKU-DS, Ivan Uhliarik -KDH and Laszlo Nagy – Most-Hid) will be awarded their certificates at a later date.
All leaders of the 6 parties that won seats in parliament were present, but it was Robert Fico who received his last as he arrived late for the ceremony. The 150 MPs will not be instated until they are officially sworn in, whereby they would lose the mandate should they refuse to take the oath or have objections to it.
As usual, the representation of male MPs strongly outnumbers the female contingent, with 127 men and 23 women (which is ten fewer ladies than the previous term of office). There will be 60 new faces in parliament, with the youngest being Andrej Kolesik from Smer-SD (27) and the oldest Rudolf Chmel from Most-Hid (71).
May they all make the right decisions, without ‘prospering’ too well.