If parliamentary elections had been held in November, current opposition party Smer would have receive 45.2 percent of the votes, according to a poll conducted by the Focus polling agency. As a result, the party would not need to find any other coalition partners as it would take 79 parliamentary seats out of a total of 150, thus securing an outright majority. The poll took place between November 3 and November 8 and involved 1,041 respondents, the TASR newswire reported.
The second largest party in parliament would have been the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) with 11.3 percent, followed by its current coalition partners the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) with 9.9 percent, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) with 7.5 percent and Most-Híd with 7 percent. The 5-percent threshold would be also passed by the Slovak National Party (SNS) which would have been supported by 5.4 percent of respondents.
Though the poll showed that Smer, led by former prime minister Robert Fico, would be able to form a government on its own, some sociologists point out that while polls have delivered similar results in the past, such scenarios have never been repeated at an election, the Sme daily reported. Sociologist Martin Slosiarik predicted that in the upcoming general election in March, the SDKÚ would receive more than 11 percent.
Slosiarik explained that the poll took place right after the fall of the government and the announcement of current Prime Minister Iveta Radičová that she would not be a candidate in the March elections. He pointed out that some traditional SDKÚ voters may have decided to join those who say they would not vote.
“A significant portion of them could later return to the SDKÚ,” he said, as quoted by Sme, adding that the party is still unlikely to exceed the 15-percent support it attracted in the 2010 parliamentary elections.
Sources: TASR, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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