VOTERS in Slovakia elected the president for the next five years on March 15. The polls closed at 22:00. The first preliminary results will be published on the website of the Statistics Office (www.statistics.sk) or at www.volbysr.sk shortly after 23:00.
The official results are expected to be published on March 16, after they are confirmed by the Central Election Committee.
The first round will give the country a winner only if one of the candidates manages to collect more than 50 percent of all the votes cast. Opinion polls published over the past two months suggest that this scenario is rather unlikely. More likely the top two finalists will move on to a second round run-off scheduled for March 29. Whoever gets the most votes in that run-off wins.
The elected candidate will take office on June 15 when the tenure of current President Ivan Gašparovič expires.
Compiled by Spectator staff from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
