The Slovak Communist Party (KSS) is calling on its members and the general public to take part in the second round of the presidential election and to vote for incumbent President Ivan Gašparovič, said KSS chairman Jozef Hrdlička on March 23, when assessing the results of the first round on March 21, the TASR newswire wrote.
Hrdlička said that the joint opposition candidate, Iveta Radicova (SDKU-DS), is absolutely unacceptable to the left wing because, among other things, she “submitted anti-social laws” while serving as the Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister between October 2005 and June 2006.
“The theory of the lesser evil is very outdated now. I'm a supporter of the idea that it is necessary to vote for the greater good. If we can choose from (these) two options, it isn't so difficult to realise who this is,” said defeated KSS presidential candidate Milan Sidor when explaining his support for Gašparovič, the TASR wrote.
According to Hrdlička, it isn't important how many votes the KSS candidate gained in the election. “We were aware of our chances,” he noted, adding that the aim was to make KSS's objectives visible in the campaign. He thinks that the first round campaign was discriminatory, as the media favoured the two leading candidates. “Our citizens and potential voters didn't and couldn't see us in direct confrontation,” added Sidor.
Hrdlička pointed out that Dagmara Bollová was also viewed as a communist candidate (since she was a former member of parliament from KSS), so KSS sees the votes given to her and to their endorsed candidate, Sidor, as the support expressed for their party. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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