With just a few mild surprises, the early elections yesterday essentially produced the expected result with Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party enjoying a landslide victory of 44.41% of the vote, meaning he will now form the first one-party government seen in Slovakia since the fall of communism in 1989.
The turnout was much higher than anticipated with 59.10% of eligible voters heading to the polls, which is more than in the 2010 elections, for instance. This possibly shows how people are becoming less apathetic about their future, or the young generation more active, in light of recent dirty affairs and corruption allegations.
Smer-SD will therefore enjoy an outright majority in parliament with 83 of the 150 seats, being joined by 5 right-wing parties on the opposition bench. The Christian democrats KDH top the list with 8.82% of the vote (16 seats), followed by Igor Matovic’s Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party (OLaNO), which enjoyed an impressive 8.55% (16 seats) of the vote. This was surely to the detriment of the SDKU (6.09%, 11 seats) and SaS (5.88%, 11 seats), which both got around half the votes they did in 2010. Their former coalition partner Most-Hid also outdid them both with 6.89% of the vote, and so it will enjoy 13 seats in parliament.
Parliament will now be absent of Jan Slota’s nationalist SNS party, as it slipped under the 5% threshold with just 4.55%. The hopes of the Hungarian coalition party SMK of returning to parliament were also shattered as it only managed to rally 4.28%. The next in line was the 99% Civic Voice party, which got a highly disappointing 1.58% of the vote, meaning less than even the 3% that would ensure it at least a financial return from its votes. The HZDS party of Vladimir Meciar has been sinking for years and didn’t even make 1% of the vote this time, joined by the communist party KSS, putting a final nail in their coffins. The results are not entirely official, but only very slight changes can now be expected.
As announced before the elections, even with its parliamentary majority Robert Fico’s Smer-SD party is still open to taking on a coalition partner, but all remaining five parties already rejected this option this morning on TV Markiza. Head of KDH Jan Figel says he will have discussions with Smer-SD, but that his party offered a different programme from Smer-SD, and so would not join a Fico coalition. Most-Hid vice-chairman Zsolt Simon expressed the same, saying Smer-SD should take full responsibility itself for the future direction of the country. The other three party heads, Igor Matovic (OLaNO), Mikulas Dzurinda (SDKU) and Richard Sulik (SaS), also said there is no way they would make a coalition with Fico.
Sulik congratulated Fico, saying he and his party now had the chance to prove that they had a better solution for Slovakia and its people. “It will not be easy, though, because the larder is bare” said Sulik. Both Sulik and Matovic said that stopping the stealing and corruption of the last 22 years was a priority for them in the opposition.
As pointed out by Zuzana Wienk from the Fair-Play Alliance, and others before the elections, the Smer-SD party would benefit from having a sidekick in government, as it did while in power from 2006-2010 with the SNS and HZDS parties, whose dubious affairs were more prominent than those of Smer-SD. This time the party will have nobody that it can point the finger at, and so will bear the burden squarely on its own shoulders of what happens in Slovakia over the next four years.
Distribution of seats in parliament:
Smer-SD = 83 seats (44.42%)
KDH =16 seats (8.82%)
OL = 16 seats (8.56%)
Most-Hid = 13 seats (6.9%)
SDKU = 11 seats (6.1%)
SaS = 11 seats (5.88%)
Full results from Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (number of votes, percentage):
I see Annka, the face slapper of Igor Matovic, who was sacked from the SNS for being an undesirable person in the party, finally got her revenge on slimy, boggle eyed Rafeul and old boss Jan . Her less than 1%, but more the 0.5% of the vote she got for her own `Democratic Nationalist Party ` made sure SNS, just did not make it in to Parliament by the skin of their teeth . Heaven , who will now defend Slovakia from the Attila the Hun ?
On another note , I thought the TV coverage the Election by STV, was quite awful. The program was presented by two of the numbest people you could ever imagine. The Expert Panel, was several “logs from a number of Uni`s or political forum, Mr & Mrs Dull . One guy on there never stopped droning on and his entire body kept shaking like a leaf . The Election grafics on the big screen you could not read on TV, even the Expert Panel was squinting their eyes trying to make sense … although they did later sort out the brightness later on in the evening.
STV also went with Media consultants, FOCUS …how wrong they were with their exit poll !
El Fico did not look a happy bunny this morning. He is going to have to run the country as Bobby No Friends with no one to blame when the shit hits the fan, unless he starts turning on his own merry men!
I hope the normally tame SK press remember his tantrums at the end of his last period in power and keep pushing the questions he couldn’t/wouldn’t answer then – Interblue etc and start pressuring him from the start.
George M – spot on bro! Trnka has already ordered a new carpet to sweep Gorilla, Anenome etc under and Harabin is planning his revenge on the decent judges who spoke against him. New police supremo – almost certain, jobs for the boys – business as usual, backhanders and bungs at every level of government – sure thing.
Yep , for once Mr DD , we agree, gone back 20 years . A Chief Prosecutor will be appointed as corrupt and as asslickin as you can get , a Head of Justice , will remain to run the Courts how he likes and sod the Law or the Constitution, A Interior Minister , that lies about members of the public that have been attacked to save his own backside, A Finance Minister the goes on Boat trips just before a exchange rate is fixed and a Minister of Social , paying consultacy fees to herself to give advice to herself and employing none existent firms to run training courses. Eleven Ministers were sacked for corrupt activities during Fico`s last term
There we some funny points .
Figel of KDH , actually thought for the first hour after the vote , he was going to be PM . He had a grin like a Cheshire cat . His party had a prediction of up to 10.5% of the vote …around 24 seats …we can see what he actually got !
Jan Slota never appeared , I guess he was packing his bags to go to his villa in abroad , as once he was no longer a MP , his legal immunity was gone , as I bet a whole host of people lining up to bang writs on the guy !
The SDKU got slaughtered ….nice to see the end of Micky the tic .
The country is well and truly f***ed