If a general election had taken place in February, the Smer party would have come first, with 40.2 percent and, with 78 seats, would thus been able to form a government alone. Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) and the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) polled joint second, with both parties attracting 9-percent support, equivalent to 17 seats each.
Next would have been the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) on 7.5 percent (15 seats), followed by Most-Híd on 6.9 percent (13 seats). The last party to make it into the parliament would have been Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) with 5.1 percent (10 seats).
The SITA newswire reported the results, which came from a telephone poll conducted by the Polis agency for the TA3 news TV channel on a sample of 1,404 respondents between February 8 and 13. Respondents were asked which party they would vote for if a parliamentary election were to take place the following weekend.
According to the poll, the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) had 4.9-percent support, New Majority (NOVA) 4.8 percent, the Hungarian Community Party (SMK) 4.4 percent, the extreme nationalist People Party – Our Slovakia (ĽSNS) 2.8 percent, the Slovak Communist Party (KSS) 1.9 percent and Vladimír Mečiar’s Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) 1.2 percent. By failing to meet the 5-percent threshold, none of these would have won seats in parliament.
Preferences were calculated based on a 60-percent attendance; 21 percent said they would not vote and 19 percent were undecided.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
