Civic Conservative Party (OKS) chairman and former candidate on the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) slate Peter Zajac called at a press conference on Wednesday, February 22, for OľaNO leader Igor Matovič to undergo a polygraph, or lie-detector, test and answer seven questions that have been drafted by various former OĽaNO candidates. Zajac left the party slate earlier this month after Matovič insisted that he and some other candidates submit to lie-detector tests to check if they had ever been involved in corruption.
Having apparently received information that Matovič may have cheated in obtaining his master's degree, former candidate Martin Mojžiš said he should be asked: "Did you draft your diploma thesis by yourself? Did you reward a person who drafted a major part of your diploma thesis with a vacation at sea?"
Zajac said he wanted Matovič to be asked if he had personally invited a co-owner of the Penta financial group, Jozef Špirko, to talks about the OĽaNO slate and whether the original version of the party’s election programme was drafted by Penta.
František Mikloško, leader of the Conservative Democrats of Slovakia (KDS), said he wanted Matovič to be asked if he had attempted to discourage Mikloško from going on the TV Markíza political talk-show 'Na Telo' and whether it was Matovič's election staff that had came up with banners during the Gorilla street protests that gave the impression that the public wanted politicians to take lie-detector tests.
The final question that former candidates said they wanted put was whether or not Matovič had ever taken or given a bribe, and, "if so, did you give it [the bribe] once or more than once?"
"We're coming up with this challenge because Matovič is spreading lies. He wasn't spreading them before," said Zajac, as quoted by the TASR newswire. He pointed out that OĽaNO had been boasting 9-percent support in opinion polls before the departure of almost 30 of its candidates over the polygraph row. “We would not have reacted if Matovič had not spread lies after we left. Any decent person would be ashamed to spread such lies.”
According to the SITA newswire, Zajac also said: “If Matovič does not take the polygraph test, or if our questions are not accepted, or he is unable to answer them truthfully, we will ask him to leave the slate.”
Sources: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
