BRATISLAVA, January 24, (WEBNOVINY) — The Interior Ministry would like to get the parliament’s go-ahead for the new election code by the end of this year or in early 2012 at the latest. The new code should unify election ballots and delivery of candidate lists to voters during all types of elections. It also has the ambition to cancel the pre-election campaigning moratorium, which should be in effect only on election day and merge some elections to be held on the same day, specifically regional, municipal, presidential elections and elections to the European Parliament. This however would require a change of the Constitution. Presidential elections and elections to the European Parliament might be held on one date on the condition that the presidential post does not become vacant before the end of the election term. If such case occurs, the elections would not be held on the same date, as of course Slovakia is unable to determine the date of the elections to the European Parliament, informed Interior Minister Daniel Lipsic (KDH). “The main objective the new code follows is to make the elections simpler and more accessible and comprehensible for people,” he said.
The important aspect of the new election code is how funding of political parties and political campaigns would be regulated. The interior minister said that coalition and opposition representatives in the commission preparing the new election code agree for now that a method of party funding and the institution which supervises its transparency should be considerably changed. It should no longer be parliamentary parties who oversee party financing but an independent institution. This function should be taken over either by the Supreme Audit Office or a permanent election commission should be established. The commission preparing the new election code is also considering making publication of campaign financing obligatory at least for candidates for county head and mayoral posts.
The new election code will not enable to vote via the Internet. The ministry wants to resolve the issue in a special law. Lipsic said that it is not a legal problem, but the ministry wants to prevent manipulations and misuse. The planned amendments to the Penal Code and Penal Order should resolve vote buying during elections.
As both coalition and opposition representatives sit on the commission. the issues on which 100-percent agreement will not be achieved will not make it to the new code. Such issues are for example division of Slovakia into several election constituencies or two-round mayoral elections.
SITA