THE OFFICIAL media campaign before the November 15 municipal elections started on October 29 at 7:00. According to the law, the campaign starts 17 days before elections and ends 48 hours before opening the polling stations. The moratorium lasts until stations are closed on November 15 at 20:00, the SITA newswire reported.
“Neither the Interior Ministry nor the Central Election Committee are eligible to check the pre-election campaign,” secretary of the Central Election Committee (ÚVK) Eva Chmelová told SITA. “The only one who has the right to do it is the Constitutional Court.”
The campaign is defined by law as activities of political parties, independent candidates or other subjects dedicated to support or in favour of a running political party or independent candidate. It includes classified ads and commercials in radio, TV and mass media, as well as posters and other information mediums, SITA wrote.
The polling agencies are banned from publishing opinion polls as of November 8, 7:00. The results can be published only after the polling stations are closed.
Moreover, during the moratorium it is prohibited to “broadcast or publish information about political parties and independent candidates in their favour or disadvantage via word, text, sound or picture in radio and television broadcast, in mass media, in buildings where district election committees sit or in their close proximity”, the law stipulates. It also forbids members of the election committees to inform about the course of the elections and their partial results until the final report about the results of the voting is signed, as reported by SITA.
Regarding the broadcasting media, the public-service Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) and private broadcasters with valid licences can reserve no more than 30 minutes for political parties and independent candidates. The broadcasting time for political campaigns cannot exceed five hours. It is the political parties and independent candidates who are responsible for the content of the broadcast programme, SITA reported.
Media must clarify what belongs to a political campaign and separate it from the rest of the programme. The costs of campaigns are paid by political parties and independent candidates.
The candidates can present themselves via posters or other information carriers have placed in public spaces, but only at sites reserved by the municipalities, SITA wrote.
About four million people in Slovakia have the right to vote. Also foreigners can cast a ballot, but only if they are older than 18 and have permanent residency in the given municipality. It is possible to vote only in the polling station that belongs to the voters’ residency, the TASR newswire reported.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
