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

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
Candidate	Party	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^[a]	Independent	3,318	0.15
József Menyhárt^[a]	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)

^ ^a ^b Candidate withdrew, but was still on the ballot.

2023 parliamentary election

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)^[a]
Ján Čarnogurský (KDH)

1992

29	74	18	14	15
SDĽ	HZDS	KDH	MKM-EGY	SNS

Vladimír Mečiar (HZDS)^[b]
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)

^ until May 1991
^ until March 1994

2019 European Parliament election

← Summary of the 25 May 2019 European Parliament election results in Slovakia
Parties and coalitions		EU Party	EP Group	Popular vote			Seats
Parties and coalitions		EU Party	EP Group	Votes	%	±pp	Total	+/−
	Progressive Slovakia (PS) TOGETHER – Civic Democracy (SPOLU)	ALDE	Renew Europe	198,255	20.11	New	2	New
		EPP	EPP group	198,255	20.11	New	2	New
	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]