THE SLOVAK parliament rejected two opposition proposals for shortening the current election term.
A proposal for elections to take place on April 8, 2006 came from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), and another for March 25, 2006, from the Slovak Communist Party (KSS), the daily SME reported.
Although the opposition expected that at least one of the two proposals, submitted as laws, would make it to a second reading in parliament, the initiatives failed, paradoxically, because of a lack of support in opposition ranks.
The HZDS proposal was only two votes short of making it to a second reading. However, HZDS leader Vladimír Mečiar himself did not show up for the vote.
HZDS Deputy Chairman Milan Urbáni said that Mečiar did not realize that the proposal would be voted on in the morning. However, it was clear at the start of the session that the proposal would at least be discussed that morning.
According to the Pravda daily, Viliam Soboňa, another HZDS member who failed to show up for the vote, claimed he could not make it because his car had broken down.
The ruling Slovak Democratic and Christian Union MPs voted against both proposals while the remaining two ruling parties, the Christian Democratic Movement and the Hungarian Coalition Party, did not vote on the proposed laws at all.
- Martina Jurinová
