Four out of 16 members of the Central Election Committee (ÚVK) on Sunday, November 15, refused to sign the election protocol for what they alleged were violations of the law during the regional elections on Saturday, the TASR newswire reported. ÚVK records clerk Lívia Škultétyová said at a press conference that ÚVK members have a right to do so. Their reasons for refusing to sign the document are recorded and make up part of the protocol. This doesn't mean, however, that the protocol is invalid.
One of the ÚVK members who refused to put a signature on the document - Andrej Trnovec for the Slovak People's Party (SĽS) - thinks that the elections weren't carried out in accordance with the law. The other three - Jana Kiššová (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS), Michal Luciak (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union, SDKÚ) and Ivan Weiss (Party of the Democratic Left/SDĽ) - refused to sign due to a possible breach of the requirement on counting votes by the district election committees.
They referred to an incident in Košice region where members of the District Election Committee Košice II handed over a large number of blank ballots and unused election envelopes to an employee of the mayor of the Košice borough who was running as an MRP (Member of Regional Parliament).
According to Weiss, it is unthinkable that such an extensive violation of the law could take place in a democratic country. He added that the ÚVK tolerates this and has agreed on a compromise statement that will not affect the result of the elections.
"If we in this way ignore such illegalities during the election, ÚVK - as well as its subordinate committees – are absolutely unnecessary and basically represent a mockery of the democratic process," Weiss said. The four ÚVK members proposed that UVK should declare that the course of the VUC elections was not in line with the law.
According to Weiss, the law would enable the election committee to organise a new election in the Košice borough in question. Škultetyová told the TASR that ÚVK can't declare the elections invalid, as only the Constitutional Court can do so and the new elections could only be announced by the Parliamentary Chairman. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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