Elections in Slovakia

There are five types of elections in Slovakia: municipal elections, regional elections, parliamentary elections, presidential elections and elections to the European Parliament. All four types of elections are normally held after fixed periods, although early elections can occur in certain situations. Elections are conventionally scheduled for a Saturday - the polls normally open at 7:00 in the morning and close at 22:00 in the evening. ^{[1] [2]} Citizens aged 18 years or older are eligible to vote. Those serving prison sentences for particularly serious crimes, as well as those deprived of legal capacity (either wholly or in part), including persons with mental disabilities, are denied the right to vote. ^[3] Voter registration is passive and decentralized with the voter register maintained by municipalities based on the permanent residence register. Voter lists are updated continuously based on municipal records and input provided by state institutions or other municipalities. Voters may verify their data in voter lists, and, if necessary, request correction until the day before election day. On election day, a voter can be added to a voter list upon presenting an identity card with proof of residency. Some 4.4 million voters are registered and valid to vote in the elections. Voters are only able to vote from abroad during the Parliamentary Elections in Slovakia. ^[4]

Overall information on the electoral system and elections in Slovakia

Municipal elections

2,904 municipalities make up Slovakia each with a mayor and municipal councilors (20,646). Citizens need to reach the age of 18 at the day of elections and have a permanent residency in their municipalities in order to be able to vote in the municipal elections. After receiving the ballot paper from the electoral commission, the voter is free to select any desired number of candidates - the maximum being the number of the seats in the electoral district (or in the town council in case of a village). As well voters can vote for a mayor. Elections are held every four years.

The latest elections were held on 29 October 2022.

Regional elections

Slovakia comprises eight self-governing regions. Citizens need to reach the age of 18 at the day of elections and have a permanent residency in their municipalities in order to be able to vote in the regional elections. After receiving the ballot paper from the electoral commission, the voter is free to select any desired number of candidates - the maximum being the number of all the candidates on the ballot paper. ^[5] In 2017, deputies of the Slovak National Council voted to extend the term of governors from 4 years to 5 years (for the 2017 election only), and change from a 2-round election to only 1 round. ^[6] After the 2022 regional elections, they will be held every four years together with municipal elections.

The latest elections were held on 29 October 2022.

Parliamentary elections

Slovakia is a parliamentary republic. Legislative powers are vested in the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic (Slovak: Národná rada Slovenskej republiky, NRSR). The NRSR is of a unicameral body and consists of 150 members of the parliament directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term office. The prime minister, who serves as the head of government, is appointed by the president, but is accountable solely to the NRSR. The seats at National Assembly are elected by a proportional representation (PR) in a single, nationwide electoral constituency. Slovakia has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments. Before the elections, political parties (or coalitions of two or more parties) submit the lists of candidates. Voters may indicate preferences for up to four candidates in one list. The seats at National Council are distributed by Hagenbach-Bischoff method on a nationwide basis - however a threshold of 5% of the votes needs to be met in order for a party to participate in the distribution of National Council seats, whereas coalitions of two to three parties and four or more parties are required to obtain at least seven and ten percent of the vote, respectively. ^[7]

The latest elections were held on 30 September 2023.

Presidential elections

Since Slovakia operates under a parliamentary system of government, the president largely possesses only ceremonial functions, but is also equipped with the opportunity to veto legislation (although the veto can be easily overturned by the simple majority in the parliament). By law, the presidential election should be called no later than 55 days prior to election day. The president serves as a head of state and is directly elected by universal suffrage in a two-stage election. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority of all valid votes cast in the first round, then the top two candidates qualify for a runoff election, in which the candidate with the largest number of votes is elected to office for a term of five years. In order to secure a place on the ballot, presidential candidates must be nominated by fifteen members of the National Council, or by a petition signed by 15,000 citizens.

Originally, the National Council chose the president, but a 1999 amendment to the constitution established the popular election of the president by runoff voting. Popular voting for presidential elections was adopted following a prolonged impasse in 1998, in which the National Council repeatedly tried to elect a new president, but no candidate attained the three-fifths majority required by the constitution. ^[8]

The latest elections was the first round of the 2024 election on 23 March 2024. The second round is planned for 6 April 2024.

Elections to the European parliament

Slovakia is a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and therefore only witnessed three elections to the European Parliament since. Slovakia gets to elect thirteen members of the European Parliament, using a proportional representation system. During its 15-year membership in the European Union, Slovakia has consistently scored the lowest among the member countries in the turnout rates during European elections. In 2019, when the latest European elections took place, the turnout in Slovakia was only at 23% of registered voters. ^[9]

The latest elections were held on 25 May 2019. the next elections will be held on 8 June 2024.

Latest elections

2019 presidential election

Main article: 2019 Slovak presidential election

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Zuzana Čaputová	Progressive Slovakia	870,415	40.57	1,056,582	58.41
Maroš Šefčovič	Independent	400,379	18.66	752,403	41.59
Štefan Harabin	Independent	307,823	14.35
Marian Kotleba	Kotleba – People's Party Our Slovakia	222,935	10.39
František Mikloško	Independent	122,916	5.73
Béla Bugár	Most–Híd	66,667	3.11
Milan Krajniak	We Are Family	59,464	2.77
Eduard Chmelár	Independent	58,965	2.75
Martin Daňo	Independent	11,146	0.52
Róbert Švec	Independent	6,567	0.31
Juraj Zábojník	Independent	6,219	0.29
Ivan Zuzula	Slovak Conservative Party	3,807	0.18
Bohumila Tauchmannová	Independent	3,535	0.16
Robert Mistrík [lower-alpha 1]	Independent	3,318	0.15
József Menyhárt [lower-alpha 1]	Party of the Hungarian Community	1,208	0.06
Invalid/blank votes		13,495	–	38,432	–
Total		2,158,859	100	1,847,417	100
Registered voters/turnout		4,429,033	48.74	4,419,883	41.80
Source: Statistics.sk (1st round), Statistics.sk (2nd round)

1. Candidate withdrew, but was still on the ballot.

2023 parliamentary election

Main article: 2023 Slovak parliamentary election

Results of the election, showing vote strength for each party by district.

Composition of the National Council since 1990

Election	Composition of the National Council after elections	Prime Minister
1990	22 6 48 7 31 14 22 KSS SZ VPN DS KDH ESW MK SNS	Vladimír Mečiar (VPN) [lower-alpha 1] Ján Čarnogurský (KDH)
1992	29 74 18 14 15 SDĽ HZDS KDH MKM-EGY SNS	Vladimír Mečiar (HZDS) [lower-alpha 2] Jozef Moravčík (DEÚS)
1994	13 18 61 15 17 17 9 ZRS SV HZDS-RSS DEÚS KDH MK SNS	Vladimír Mečiar (HZDS)
1998	23 13 43 42 15 14 SDĽ SOP HZDS SDK SMK-MKP SNS	Mikuláš Dzurinda (SDK)
2002	11 25 36 15 28 15 20 KSS Smer ĽS-HZDS ANO SDKÚ KDH SMK-MKP	Mikuláš Dzurinda (SDKÚ)
2006	50 15 31 14 20 20 Smer-SD ĽS-HZDS SDKÚ-DS KDH SMK-MKP SNS	Róbert Fico (Smer-SD)
2010	62 14 28 15 22 9 Smer-SD Most-Híd SDKÚ-DS KDH SaS SNS	Iveta Radičová (SDKÚ-DS)
2012	83 13 11 16 16 11 Smer-SD Most-Híd SDKÚ-DS KDH OĽaNO SaS	Róbert Fico (Smer-SD)
2016	49 10 11 19 21 11 15 14 Smer-SD #Sieť Most–Híd OĽaNO-NOVA SaS SR SNS ĽSNS	Róbert Fico (Smer-SD) Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD)
2020	38 12 53 13 17 17 Smer-SD ZĽ OĽaNO-NOVA-KÚ-ZZ SaS SR K-ĽSNS	Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) Eduard Heger (OĽaNO)
2023	42 27 32 16 11 12 10 Smer-SD Hlas-SD PS OĽaNO SaS KDH SNS	Robert Fico (Smer - SD)

1. until May 1991
2. until March 1994

2019 European Parliament election

Main article: 2019 European Parliament election in Slovakia

← Summary of the 25 May 2019 European Parliament election results in Slovakia

Parties and coalitions		EU Party	EP Group	Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Progressive Slovakia (PS) TOGETHER – Civic Democracy (SPOLU)	ALDE	Renew Europe	198,255	20.11	New	2	New
		EPP	EPP group				2
	Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD)	PES	S&D	154,996	15.72	–8.37	3	–1
	People's Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS)	APF	NI	118,995	12.07	+10.34	2	+2
	Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)	EPP	EPP group	95,558	9.69	–3.52	2	±0
	Freedom and Solidarity (SaS)	ECR Party	ECR	94,839	9.62	+2.96	2	+1
	Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO)	None	EPP group	51,834	5.25	–2.21	1	±0
	Party of the Hungarian Community (SMK-MKP)	EPP	–	48,929	4.96	–1.57	0	–1
	Slovak National Party (SNS)	None	–	40,330	4.09	+0.48	0	±0
	Christian Union (KÚ)	ECPM	–	37,974	3.85	New	0	New
	We Are Family	ID Party	–	31,840	3.23	New	0	New
	Most–Híd	EPP	–	25,562	2.59	–3.24	0	–1
	Christian Democracy - Life and Prosperity (KDŽP)	None	–	20,374	2.06	New	0	New
Others				66,193	6.72		0	–3
Total				985,680			14	+1
Valid votes				985,680	97.94	+0.6
Invalid votes				20,671	2.05	–0.6
Votes cast / turnout				1,006,351	22.72	+13.11
Registered voters				4,429,801
Sources [10] [11]

Composition of Slovak MEPs since 2004

Election	Party affiliation of the elected MEPs
2004	PES EPP-ED NI 3 3 3 2 3 SMER (tretia cesta) SDKÚ KDH SMK-MKP ĽS-HZDS
2009	PASD EDP EPP NI 5 1 2 2 2 1 SMER ĽS-HZDS SDKÚ-DS KDH SMK-MKP SNS
2014	S&D EPP group ECR group 4 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 SMER-SD Most-Híd SDKÚ-DS KDH SMK-MKP OĽaNO NOVA [lower-alpha 1] SaS
2019	S&D Renew EPP group ECR NI 3 4 2 1 2 2 SMER-SD PS-SPOLU KDH OĽaNO SaS ĽSNS

1. together with KDS + OKS

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

References

1. "Voľby prezidenta Slovenskej republiky". Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. minv.sk. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
2. "Slovak Republic Presidential Election 16 March 2019". osce.org . OSCE. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
3. "Voľby do orgánov samosprávy obcí Informácie pre voliča". minv.sk. minv.sk. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
4. Mikus, Roman. "Electoral system of Slovakia: Perspective of political geography". Researchgate. Roman Mikus. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
5. "Voľby do orgánov samosprávy obcí Informácie pre voliča". minv.sk. minv.sk. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
6. "Predsedov VÚC budú ľudia voliť iba v jednom kole". tvnoviny.sk. tvnoviny.sk. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
7. "Slovak Republic Parliamentary Elections 5 March 2016". osce.org. osce.org. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
8. "Election Resources Slovakia". electionresources.org. electionresources. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
9. "European Election Turnout". europa.eu. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
10. "DEFINITÍVNE VÝSLEDKY HLASOVANIA". volby.statistics.sk (in Slovak). Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
11. "DEFINITÍVNE VÝSLEDKY HLASOVANIA". volby.statistics.sk (in Slovak). Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. Retrieved 11 September 2020.

External links

• All Slovak elections since 1992 - Statistical Office of Slovakia
• Slovak Election Data Project
• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Parties and Elections in Europe
• NSD: European Election Database - Slovakia Archived 2014-06-15 at the Wayback Machine publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2010
• Slovakia Election Data, European Journal of Political Research-Political Data Yearbook: Interactive