According to a telephone opinion poll conducted by the Polis agency among a sample of 1,226 respondents, Smer party would have won a general election in mid December with 40.2 percent of the votes, the TASR newswire reported. The poll was conducted between December 15 and 23.
The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) finished second with support from 9.6 percent of those polled, followed by the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) at 8.7 percent. The three remaining parties that would have made it to parliament were Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) with 8.3 percent, Most-Híd with 8.1 percent and the Slovak National Party (SNS) with 5.7 percent.
With these results, Smer would have captured 75 seats in parliament, exactly half, and one seat short of a simple majority. SDKÚ would have had 18 MPs, KDH 16, SaS and Most-Híd 15 each, and SNS 11. The Ordinary People and Independent Personalities party established by independent MP Igor Matovič, at 4.1 percent, would not have reached parliament.
The Movement for Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) of Vladimír Mečiar (3.6 percent), the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) (3.6 percent), the 99 Percent People's Voice party (2.3 percent), the Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ) (1.5 percent), the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) (1.3 percent) and the People's Party-Our Slovakia (1.1 percent) also would have failed to reach parliament. Around 1.9 percent of the respondents would have voted for some other party or movement and the election turnout would have been 49.7 percent, Polis reported.
The head of the Polis agency, Ján Baránek, told the Sme daily that the poll was conducted before the Gorilla controversy had fully developed and that this issue might have influenced public opinion since then.
Source: TASR, Sme
For more information on the Gorilla controversy, please see: Ordinary People party asks OLAF to examine Gorilla case
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
