RESIDENTS of Slovak villages, towns and cities elected their mayors and local council representatives on November 15. The municipal elections confirmed the ruling Smer party as the most popular in Slovakia, as they won more mayoral positions than in 2010 based on final official results announced by the Slovak Statistics Office on November 16. The turnover was 48.34 percent, a small drop from 2010’s 49.69 percent.
Out of eight regional capitals, four mayors kept their positions: in Košice, Žilina, Trenčín and Nitra. Candidates who ran for Smer or in coalition with other parties won in Košice, Žilina, Banská Bystrica and Nitra. Independent candidates won mayoral posts in Bratislava, Trenčín and Trnava, while a coalition of right-wing parties takes the mayoral position in Prešov.
The Slovak capital will get a new mayor: Ivan Nesrovnal, who ran as independent. He received 50,630 votes, while so-far mayor Milan Ftáčnik, who ran as an independent candidate with the support of the ruling Smer party, finished second with 40,481 votes. Milan Kňažko, running as an independent candidate with the support of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), NOVA, Sieť, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), Most-Híd, Strana zelených (Green Party), ended third with 35,562 votes.
In Košice, Richard Raši, the candidate of Smer kept his mayoral post when he obtained 35,838 votes. He won over Rudolf Bauer, the candidate of the wide rightist coalition KDH, SDKÚ, NOVA, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the Party of Hungarian Community (SMK), the Conservative Democrats of Slovakia (KDS), the Civic Conservative Party (OKS), the Democratic Party (DS), Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO), Sieť and Most-Híd. Bauer got 24,398 votes.
In Trnava, Peter Bročka (independent) won the race with 8,739 votes over Ján Žitňanský (coalition KDH, SDKÚ, OĽaNO, SaS, Nova, Green Party with the support of Most-Híd and OKS) with 4,458 votes and Bystrík Stanko (Smer-SD) with 4,412 votes. Incumbent mayor Vladimir Butko did not run.
Banská Bystrica went to Ján Nosko, the candidate of Smer, SDKÚ, the Slovak National Party (SNS) and the Party of Modern Slovakia (SMS), who picked up 9,739 votes. Incumbent mayor Peter Gogola (independent) ended second with 4,248 votes.
The winner of the mayoral race in the city of Trenčín is the current mayor Richard Rybníček (independent) with 12,383 votes. He defeated Tomáš Vaňo (independent) who got 1,692 votes.
Igor Choma (Smer) will continue to serve as the mayor of Žilina for the next four years, as he he received 10,131 votes. He won over Martin Barčík (SIEŤ, SDKÚ, NOVA, SaS, Most-Híd and OKS) who got 6,791 votes.
Andrea Turčanová (KDH, SDKÚ, Most-Híd, OĽaNO, NOVA and OKS) has picked the highest number of votes in Prešov, 11, 887, defeating the incumbent mayor Pavel Hagyari (independent) who got 7 341 votes.
Jozef Dvonč (Smer, KDH and SNS) kept his mayoral post in Nitra when he got 10,990 votes. He defeated Dominika Tekeliová, the candidate of Sieť who got 2,433 votes.
In total, independent candidates won mayoral posts in 1,104 municipalities (37.95 percent), followed by Smer candidates (847 or 29.11 percent). During the previous municipal elections in 2010, independent candidates won 979 mayoral seats, while Smer got 599.
KDH candidates won mayoral posts in 122 municipalities (4.19 percent), followed by SMK with 107 (3.67 percent), Most-Híd (87, or 2.99 percent), SDKÚ (48, or 1.65 percent), and Sieť (52, or 1.78 percent).
In terms of deputies of regional governments, independent candidates won 6,000 posts, or 28.91 percent. Smer gained 5,123 seats (24.68 percent), followed by KDH with 2,190 seats (10.55 percent), SMK with 1,151 seats (5.54 percent), SNS with 841 percent (4.05 percent), Most- Híd with 829 (3.99 percent), SDKÚ with 817 (3.93 percent), Sieť with 660 (3.18 percent) and NOVA with 252 (1.21 percent).
