BRATISLAVA, September 23, (WEBNOVINY) — Incumbent leader of the opposition parliamentary party SNS Jan Slota explains why he will run for reelection at the party congress on Saturday. Slota who has hinted on several occasions after the SNS election failure in June that he would no longer run for the top job in the party which he co-founded said he decided to run in order to not disappoint those who proposed his candidacy. He specified that about twenty district organizations did so. “It would be unethical to disappoint these people,” said Slota. He said that if he fails on Saturday, he will congratulate the winner, become a rank-and-file member and offer a helping hand to the new party leader.
Slota believes that the congress will be unproblematic and decent. “The SNS consists first of all of decent people. Therefore the congress will be managed accordingly”, he said. He underscored that also the last sitting of the party leadership prior to the congress was like that. Only the method of election stirred some disputes as some members of the leadership wanted that the new leader is picked in a secret ballot.
Slota thinks that the vote on the new chairman should be public, just as stipulated in the SNS statutes. “I have been fighting for my whole life that SNS members were not hypocrites. Are we ashamed for our opinion?,” he asked. However he does not have a problem with the secret ballot either. Therefore, he suggested a point to be added on the congress agenda that congress delegates decide on the method of the chairman election. He is however concerned that if a secret ballot is held, the outcome of the election might be questioned, as political parties have to act exclusively in line with their statutes as stipulated in the law.
There are three official candidates for the SNS top job before the Saturday congress. Slota’s challengers are his deputies Anna Belousovova and Dusan Svantner. The latter told journalists earlier this week that Belousovova plans to establish a new party if she loses the race. She however said she had no such intention. Belousovova established a new party in the late 90s as the result of her open rift with Slota. The rumpus led up to the SNS failing to get into parliament because it had split its vote. The party then reunited and Belousovova has become the first chairwoman in the party.
SITA