THE RULING Smer party would have won 38 percent of the votes if elections had been held in mid-March, according to the results of a telephone survey carried out by the Polis agency between March 13 and 16 on a sample of 1,280 respondents, the SITA newswire wrote. The next most popular party was the opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), with 13.4 percent; the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) in third place, with 12.7 percent.
The poll also suggested that two new parties, SaS and Most-Híd, would have made it into parliament, garnering 8 percent and 6.7 percent respectively. The opposition Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) polled 5.9 percent and the ruling-coalition member the Slovak National Party (SNS) 5.2 percent. Falling below the five-percent threshold required to qualify for seats in parliament was the third member of the current ruling coalition, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), on 4.4 percent, and the Slovak Communist Party (KSS), on 1.3 percent, SITA wrote.