A couple wearing traditional Slovak clothes enter a town hall in Martovce, Nitra Region, to cast their ballot in the 2018 municipal election. (source: TASR)
Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár has officially announced that municipal and regional elections will be held on October 29, which is a Saturday.
For the first time in history, these elections will take place on the same day. The parliament will publish Kollár’s official decision online, including technicalities, later this week.
Elections vs All Souls’ Day
The two elections will be held ahead of All Souls’ Day, November 2, which falls on Wednesday in 2022. Many people will be heading to cemeteries the weekend before the holiday.
The coalition is hoping to see more people take part in the elections because of the date the four coalition parties have agreed on. “If we combine people’s visits to graves and the elections, it will pay off more for people to travel to their place of permanent residence,” said Kollár during his press conference on June 6.
Kollár and his coalition partners also believe that the two elections to be held in one day will save public money. When asked about the possibility of holding municipal and regional elections on different days in the future, Kollár said, “We’ll see how it’s going to work out this year.”
Foreigners can also vote
People will choose their local and regional councillors, mayors, and chairs of eight self-governing regions (VÚC) again four years after the last municipal election took place in 2018. The last regional election took place in 2017.
Foreigners with permanent residence in Slovakia can also vote or be elected.
A year ago, 152,902 foreigners lived in Slovakia. Data provided by the foreigners’ police does not reveal how many foreigners in total have permanent residence in the country. Moreover, municipalities and the Statistics Office do not know how many foreigners actually vote in the elections.
As for foreigners elected as councillors in Slovak regions and municipalities, Briton Addy Akram remains a rare example. He has served as a local and regional councillor in eastern Slovakia for several years.
However, entrepreneur Džemal Kodrazi, who comes from Serbia, officially announced on June 2 that he would run for the post of Košice Region chair. In 2018, he unsuccessfully ran for Košice mayor.
