The erosion of political parties in Slovakia continues, as is evident from the dominance of independent candidates in the local elections on November 15, analysts Michal Horský told TASR newswire.
Independent candidates gained almost 38 percent of the mayoral seats and 29 percent of local councillors throughout Slovakia.
Horský told TASR that from among political parties, Robert Fico's Smer is still by far the most powerful entity, as it has gained 29 percent of mayors and almost 25 percent of local councillors. The Christian Democrats (KDH) and ethnic-Hungarian parties Hungarian Community Party (SMK) and Most-Híd can still be relatively satisfied, but the remaining parties were almost ignored by voters, according to Horský.
Also, the conventional notion that Bratislava and Košice are bastions of the right wing has emerged to be untrue, as Smer's Richard Raši has defended his mayoral post in Košice and both the candidates of the right (Milan Knažko) and the left (Milan Ftáčnik) in Bratislava have lost to independent Ivo Nesrovnal.
"Bratislava should serve as a warning sign for political parties to evaluate this fact ahead of the general election [set for March 2016, if nothing unexpected takes place] and resuscitate their key players," said Horský.
The local elections in Slovakiasaw a turnout of 48.34 percent and a massive success for independent candidates, including independent mayoral candidate in Bratislava Ivo Nesrovnal, according to official results of the elections as released by the Central Electoral Commission (UVK) on November 16.
Source: TASR newswire
