If an election had taken place at the beginning of October, Prime Minister Robert Fico's party Smer would have won 37.4 percent of the vote, according to a poll carried out by the Focus agency on October 7-13. In contrast to the findings from other recent polls, seven political parties would have made it into Parliament.
The largest opposition party, the Slovak Christian-Democratic Union (SDKÚ), attracted the support of 14.4 percent of the 1,036 adult respondents. Another 10.1 percent of respondents opted for the Christian Democrats (KDH), which are now led by Slovakia's former European commissioner, Ján Figeľ. The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), one of the two junior parties in the governing coalition, recorded 6.9 percent support; the other junior coalition party, the Slovak National Party (SNS), would have followed on 5.8 percent of votes. The poll suggested that the recently-established Most-Híd party would have cleared the 5-percent hurdle for gaining representation, with 5.8 percent of votes. Most-Híd's rival for votes in Slovakia’s Hungaria-speaking regions would also have cleared the same hurdle – but only just, with 5.1 percent support. According to the survey, 64.4 percent of adult Slovaks would have voted, 19.2 say they would not have gone to the polls and 16.2 percent of respondents weren't sure or didn't want to reveal their political preferences.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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