The government will reserve a total of €10.7 million for the 2016 general election due to be held on March 5. Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák, who submitted the schedule, stated, as quoted by the TASR newswire, that a total of €9.134 million will be needed for preparing and running the election. The remaining €1.575 million is reserved for the Slovak Statistics Office (ŠÚ) to process the results.
The amount spent on the early general election in 2012 was somewhat lower – €10.147 million, of which €8.6 million was reserved for the work of election committees, printing and distributing ballot papers, informational materials, equipping polling stations and maintaining public order on the day of the election. ŠÚ needed €1.530 million on this occasion.
The government also approved individual measures that have to be carried out before certain deadlines. These tasks include releasing the instructions for all activities related to preparing and carrying out the election, printing and distributing election forms, creating election committees and setting up the conditions for their work, providing electronic communications between all electoral bodies, training people involved in the whole election process, processing the results, archiving the election documentation, etc.
Ballot papers, envelopes and slates will be sent by the Interior Ministry to district offices by January 18. ŠÚ is expected to have trained all members of the district election committees by the end of February 12.
