Slovakia has seen a historic presidential election this weekend, but election statistics show a large amount of Slovaks abstained from voting.
In the runoff round of the presidential election on March 30, 2019, less than 42 percent of eligible voters cast their votes for one of the two candidates. This is the lowest-ever turnout in the presidential elections in Slovakia.
In 2004, the turnout just exceeded 43 percent. That was the year when Ivan Gašparovič, who surprisingly succeeded to the second round against the front runner, Vladimír Mečiar, won the election in the end. Gašparovič was the former right hand of Mečiar and for many voters, voting for him was voting for a lesser evil, and many voters opted out of the election on principle.
>>> See the history of election turnout numbers in Slovakia here
Less than in round one
It was also a rare case when the election turnout was lower in the second round than in the first round. On March 16, when 18 candidates ran in the first round of the vote, the turnout reached 48.8 percent.
