Those presidential candidates who aren’t backed by a political party - in effect, only by their own ideological and financial background - have no chance in the election set for March 21, political analyst Miroslav Kusý told the TASR newswire on Thursday, March 12.
“The election campaign is about public relations. It means that it's directly connected to PR agencies and costs a fortune,” said Kusý, adding that candidates without party backing have limited scope to secure money for their campaign.
Another political analyst, Erik Laštic, claims that the division of political candidates into the party and civil ones is only artificial. “There's virtually no boundary line between the civil and party candidate. [Incumbent President]Ivan Gašparovič is a civil candidate, but is backed by political parties,” he told TASR.
The only officially independent presidential hopeful is former Communist Party (KSS) member Dagmara Bollová, while the remaining six candidates are supported by one of more political party. Iveta Radičová has the support of SDKU-DS, the Christian Democrats (KDH) and the ethnic-Hungarian SMK; Zuzana Martináková is backed by her own Free Forum party; Milan Melnik by the co-ruling LS-HZDS; Milan Sidor by the Communist KSS; and former KDH member František Mikloško by the Conservative Democrats of Slovakia (KDS). TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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