Smer leader Robert Fico. (source: SITA)
Thank you for staying with us during the election night. That's all from us. You can follow more stories about the election, its outcomes and impacts here.
09:05 Almost 100 percent of votes have been counted - 99.98 percent. The results will be confirmed around midday. Smer is the winner, the far-right movement Republika did not win any seats in parliament. Smer will be asked to form a government. The runner-up Progresívne Slovensko will have a chance to form a government if Smer's attempt fails.
07:20 Most Slovaks living abroad voted for liberal parties. See the graph. Results for this group of voters were published 12 hours after they began to be counted.
06:15 Smer won in seven of eight regions, more detailed data published by the Sme daily show.
05:39 Votes are still being counted in Bratislava and the districts of Pezinok and Prešov.
05:09 MEP and Smer co-founder Monika Beňová expects that Smer will form a coalition government with Hlas and the ultranationalist party SNS, writes Denník N.
05:07 The Statistics Office has not published how Slovaks abroad voted in the election. Eighteen electoral division commissions began to count their votes at 18:00 on Saturday, four hours before most polling stations closed.
05:00 "Robert Fico defeated Slovakia. The version of the country that the majority of the nation imagined after the 1989 Velvet Revolution," writes Sme daily editor-in-chief Beata Balogová in .
04:35Smer leader Robert Fico has received the most votes from people in the election, more than half a million. Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini and PS leader Michal Šimečka follow.
04:30 The Smer party is celebrating its victory in the 2023 election. The Denník N daily Smer leader and his colleagues as they sing a popular folk song, "Na Kráľovej Holi". Smer people also shouted: "We won. This is how it should be done."
04:00 Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini told the media that he is extremely pleased with the gain of more than 15 percent in the elections. Hlas is a party without which no normal coalition can be formed, he added.
He is convinced that two ex-PMs (himself and Fico) in one government is not a good situation. But he has not ruled out a future coalition with Smer.
03:55 The ultranationalist SNS party, led by Andrej Danko who holds pro-Russian views, spoke to the media after hours of silence. He announced that he feels like a part of the ruling coalition. He compared PS leader Michal Šimečka to a “hurt puddle”. He added that he has managed to create a bloc that will compete with liberalism. (Denník N)
03:50 After counting 90.15 percent of votes, the Smer party continues to lead in the election with 23.69 percent. PS came second with 15.68 percent, followed by Hlas with 15.43 percept.
03:48 Milan Majerský, leader of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), said that a conservative political party has its place on the Slovak political scene. KDH is projected to get into parliament with around 7 percent.
Majerský compared LGBT+ people to a "plague" on live TV a few days ago.
03:41 "We've seen more joyous days at the Liberal House (SaS' headquarters)," said SaS leader Richard Sulík.
The liberal party SaS was hoping for a better result. Sulík believes that the party can win around 6 percent of votes, which would send the party to parliament. The preliminary results show that SaS can make it to parliament. Sulík also expressed his hope that the far-right movement Republika would not get into parliament.
03:32From the preliminary results, it can be seen that PS is gradually growing but it is difficult to predict what result it will achieve, said PS leader Michal Šimečka. (TASR)
03:20 See a selection of photos from the election night.
03:13 Smer will be the winner of the 2023 election.
03: 05 "It is disappointing that a quarter of people in Slovakia keep voting for the mafia," said OĽaNO leader and self-proclaimed anti-corruption fighter Igor Matovič about the preliminary result of the populist party Smer. During the election night, Matovič has blamed the media for the likely return of Smer several times.(TASR)
02:55 "We will accept the results with responsibility and humility. We will comment on the results in the morning," said PS leader Michal Šimečka. He added that PS' ambition is for Slovakia to have a stable pro-European government that will defend the rule of law. (SME)
02:52 Smer will comment on the 2023 election only after the official results are announced on Sunday morning. The counting of votes is slow and a lot can still change, the party said. (TASR)
02: 49: The leader of the far-right movement Republika, MEP Milan Uhrík, told journalists that he was going to sleep for a while. The venue where the party has been waiting for the final results is gradually emptying, and the journalists are gradually leaving.
02: 41 Results from more than 65 percent of electoral divisions have come through.
02:33 Czech media managed to talk to Smer leader Robert Fico in front of Smer's headquarters, when he was leaving on a motorcycle, the Denník N daily writes. He said he had no idea how the election would turn out and that it was the least predictable election he had experienced, given the number of parties hovering around the electability threshold.
Smer won 18.29 percent of the vote in the 2020 election, and is now aiming for a better result in the early election.
02:28 Interior Ministry's elections department head Eva Chmelová says the counting of votes is going on as usual. The slower pace, she says, has been caused by the counting of votes in small election divisions in eastern Slovakia in the first place. Votes from western Slovakia, including Bratislava, will be counted as last.
However, some members of the electoral division commissions claim that they could not submit the results from their electoral divisions online, several Slovak media reported. This may be one of the explanations why the results are coming in significantly slower than expected.
Slovak media and politicians, including Progresívne Slovensko leader Michal Šimečka, have criticised the slow publishing of results.
01:54 Peter Pellegrini of Hlas told the Czech media, that his party will be the "stabilising element" in the potential ruling coalition. It has been clear throughout the campaign that neither Smer nor PS will be able to put together a coalition without Hlas.
Pellegrini now says, rather ambiguously, that he does not want "the old ways to return", but he also refuses "new tricks".
01:48 On election day, Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán's foreign minister Péter Szijjártó published an Aliancia poster with the text 'Hungarians to parliament', although Orbán has so far expressed support for Smer leader Robert Fico and Smer rather than the ethnic party, says Sme daily's editor-in-chief Beata Balogová.
Some Hungarian commentators have noted that Orbán supports Aliancia so that Fico has someone to form a government with. Orbán is one of the reasons for the divisiveness of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia. He does not need to have a Hungarian minority party in the parliament. For him, Fidesz is perceived as a true supporter of the interests of the Hungarian minority in the region. (SME)
The future of Aliancia in parliament is uncertain, according to the preliminary results.
01:20 With one third of the votes counted, Smer leads the results with almost 25 percent of the vote ahead of Hlas and Progresívne Slovensko.
00:54 Sme Rodina leader Boris Kollár does not think that his party will make it to parliament. He points to the high turnout in the election and the anti-campaign against his movement. The preliminary results and exit polls confirm Kollár's worries. (TASR)
00:22 More than 12 percent of votes have been counted. Smer leads, followed by Hlas. Progresívne Slovensko is third. OĽaNO-KÚ-ZĽ, KDH, SNS, Republika and the Hungarian minority party Aliancia follow. The voter turnout reaches 67.09 percent. (TASR)
00:06 Smer politicians have still not made any comments for the media. Foreign journalists covering the election night at the Smer headquarters are wondering whether such a treatment is common in Slovakia. (SME)
Journalists at the Smer headquarters in Bratislava (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
23:50 Eduard Heger, the former prime minister who broke away from OĽaNO to start his own party, Demokrati, insists that this is not the end of his party's story. "Our party has experienced people, it would be a shame if they were not part of politics anymore," he told the SME daily. His party consistently polled below the electability threshold throughout the campaign, and scored merely 3 percent in the exit poll.
23:43 That is life, one must come to terms with it, said Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár in reaction to the results of the exit poll. His party Sme Rodina's result - a mere 2 percent of the vote - is one of the biggest surprises of the exit poll.
23:20 "Exit poll appears hopeful and positive, but I am cautious in making conclusions, since in the last election the exit polls gave us more percent than what we really gained," leader of Progresívne Slovensko, Michal Šimečka, said in reaction to the polls. His party leads in the exit polls. In 2020, it was left out in the cold by just a few hundreds of votes.
23:06 The Statistics Office has started releasing the preliminary results. You can see where the parties stand on the top of our main page.
23:00 Exit poll results have failed to bring more lively atmosphere to the headquarters of Hlas, the party that came third in the poll. Hlas leader Peter Pellegrini refused to comment on the exit poll results. "We shall see what the reality will be like. I would not like to comment on the exit poll. But it seems we are among the three most successful parties in this elecion," he said. The election night will be a night of surprises, he added. (SME)
22:56 Progresívne Slovensko, a liberal party led by MEP Michal Šimečka, came first in the exit poll. Smer, a populist party led by former three-time PM Robert Fico, came second in the poll.
22:11: Smer’s election night event takes place at its headquarters in Bratislava’s Ružinov borough. As usual, the politicians of the party are not mixing with journalists. Media interest in the party of Robert Fico, which had led the public opinion polls until the end of the campaign, is extremely high this year, including among foreign journalists. (SME)
Robert Fico arrives to Smer headquarters. (source: Sme - Marko Erd)
22:03: The television channel Markíza has published the Focus exit poll. The exit poll remains "blind" because of the election moratorium, meaning that the numbers have been published without the names of political parties. The winner received 23.5 percent. Seven political parties may get into parliament.
22:00The early election in Slovakia is over, almost all polling stations have closed. However, the moratorium lasts until 22:45. It was extended for two health-related incidents in Bratislava and Považská Bystrica.
21:59 "Despite all the attacks and anti-campaigns, Progresívne Slovensko's offer has resonated with voters," PS leader Michal Šimečka said in his first speech at the party's headquarters for the election night. The liberal party will accept any result with humility.
21:47 Votes of Slovak citizens living abroad that were sent by mail are already being counted. A total of 58,779 voters voted by mail, the highest number so far.
They have been distributed among several electoral division commissions, each of which has to count about 3,300 votes.
21:45 SaS leader Richard Sulík is already at the Liberal House, the liberal party's headquarters, where he will wait for the election results together with his party members.
"I think we could make it. We'll see how the election turns out. It could also be stalemate," he said.
According to him, the election can be decided, for example, by whether the ultranationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) gets into parliament.
"This is our fifth election, but it was the most demanding campaign," added Sulík. He did not yet want to talk about the party's possible result or whether he will meet with the leaders of other parties.
Good evening! Welcome to our live coverage of Slovakia's 2023 early parliamentary election.
Most public opinion polls indicate that the populist Smer party, led by three-time former prime minister Robert Fico, will come first. Smer left office in 2020, after eight years in power, following the surprise victory in that year’s parliamentary election of the self-proclaimed anti-corruption movement OĽaNO.
Most of the other political parties in Slovakia’s fragmented political scene are now trying to stop Smer, a party under which organised crime thrived, from returning to government. Based on the polls, Smer would need to find coalition partners after the election in order to form a government.
Whether Fico, who expresses openly pro-Russian opinions and has lately grown increasingly close to Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, will be able to do this remains to be seen.
Slovaks elect new members of parliament today
In the era of independent Slovakia, this is the ninth parliamentary election in a row and the fourth early election in the country's history.
Twenty-five political subjects are vying for the favour of voters.
Polling stations will be open until 22:00.
The Statistics Office estimates that more than 4.3 million people can vote in the parliamentary election. For about 53,300 people, this is the first ever election in which they can vote. Another type of first-time voters are those who have voted in other elections, but can vote for members of the national parliament for the first time. There are 184,800 of them.
Citizens can cast their vote in 5,996 polling stations across Slovakia.
Almost 73,000 Slovaks applied to vote by post from abroad, and 58,779 voted in the end.
The election is being supervised by around 6,500 police officers.
After the polling stations are closed, the votes will be counted. The only votes that will start to be counted earlier are the votes received by post.
On Saturday, the 48-hour election moratorium, which began on September 28, has been extended by 45 minutes, to 22:45, across Slovakia due to two health emergencies. As a result of these emergencies, two polling stations, in Bratislava and in Považská Bystrica, had to be closed for some time.
In Považská Bystrica, western Slovakia, a voter has died at a polling station on Saturday afternoon.
During the moratorium, no information in favour of or against a political party, including public opinion polls, are not allowed to be published in the media. Before the last parliamentary election in 2020, a two-week ban on publishing public opinion polls had been in effect. At the end of 2021, MPs changed the law and shortened the moratorium.
The Slovak Spectator will be updating the election results on its webpage simultaneously with information coming from the Statistics Office.
The official results will be announced after approval by the Commission for Elections and Control of Political Party Financing on Sunday, October 1.
