In the Bratislava region, called officially “Bratislava Higher Territorial Unit”, or VÚC in short, a total of 12 people filed their candidacies for the post of regional head by the September 30 deadline. For the election that takes place on November 9 (first round) and November 23 (second round – if there is no clear winner), the SITA newswire wrote.
Apart from Pavol Frešo (opposition Slovak Christian and Democratic Union-SDKÚ, with the support of Christian-Democratic Movement-KDH, Most-Híd, Party of Hungarian Community-SMK, Freedom and Solidarity-SaS, Civic Conservative Party-OKS and the Green Party), and Monika Flašíková Beňová(Smer), also Daniel Krajcer (New Majority – Agreement/NOVA), Jaroslav Paška (Slovak National Party-SNS), and candidates of non-parliamentary parties as well as independents are running.
In the Trnava Region, there are six candidates for the head of the VÚC; while there are seven candidates in the Nitra Region, six in the Trenčín Region, five in the Žilina Region, 11 in the Banská Bystrica Region, 10 in the Košice Region and nine in the Prešov Region.
Apart from heads of the administrative regions, also representatives to regional councils will be elected. The daily Sme slammed the opposition right-of-centre parties for not being able to unite and position joint candidates with a bigger chance to successfully challenge the ruling Smer party and its nominees. Sme wrote on October 2 that while the rightist-coalition parties were able to place a joint candidate for the head of VÚC in the Trenčín, Žilina, and Prešov regions, the only region where it managed to agree also on candidates for VÚC deputies was the Trenčín Region.
Slovakia is divided into eight administrative regions which are tasked to manage budgets of €1.14 billion a year and decide on secondary schools, hospitals, senior homes, theatres, galleries, museums and libraries; as well as operating the lower-level roads and administering the road tax, local public transport, social services, culture and sport, Sme wrote.
(Source: SITA, Sme)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
