BRATISLAVA, March 9, (WEBNOVINY) — Voters across Slovakia will decide in early parliamentary elections this Saturday who will occupy the 150 seats in the Slovak Parliament for the next four years. These will be the sixth parliamentary elections in the history of independent Slovak Republic. The first took place in 1994. The Central Election Commission reports that the preparations for the elections were without any problems, although police warned of attempts to disrupt voting by protesters on election day. Voting will be taking place on one day, Saturday, March 10, from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. On election day, up to the end of voting, it is forbidden to publish outcomes of opinion surveys of election preferences. However, unlike in the past the classic information moratorium including positive or negative information about political parties does not apply to these parliamentary elections.
Eligible to vote on Saturday will are about 4.3 million voters, citizens of Slovakia who are at least 18 years old on election day. According to the Statistics Office, of all the voters about 128,000 are first time voters, which is approximately three percent of all voters. Voters can choose from 26 political parties competing in the elections. They can cast their ballots in 5,956 polling stations across Slovakia. Parties registered lists of candidates in December with 2,967 candidates of which 778 were women (26%). According to information from the Central Election Commission, in the meantime 85 candidates were removed from the lists. Total 66 gave up their candidacy, parties withdrew 18 candidates and one candidate died.
The results of the elections will be processes by the Statistics Office. The first exit poll numbers could be available on Saturday night between 22:30 and 22:45, depending on how precinct election commissions process their minutes. The Statistics Office has adopted measures to reduce the risk of a hacker attack, both on communication networks, processing or reporting of voting results. Precautions are incomparably more intense than in elections in 2010. The Central Election Commission will publish the official voting results on Sunday March 11, probably around noon or early afternoon.
SITA
