Slovak News Back to the news
Analysts Downplay Chances of Referendum Succeeding
Wednesday 07 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, July 7 (TASR) - Slovakia's political analysts are sceptical about the success of a referendum on a variety of issues after it was declared Wednesday by President Ivan Gasparovic for September 18.
Slovakia, in its short history, has a poor record of holding referendums, with only one of five - on the country's entry into the European Union - enjoying success. The rest failed due to public apathy and hence turnouts of less than 50 percent of eligible voters.
Approached by TASR, Grigorij Meseznikov from the Institute for Public Affairs, said that the president was manipulative when he chose not to tie the referendum that asked, for example, whether the number of lawmakers should be cut from 150 to 100 or television and radio license fees abolished, to the June 12 elections.
He says that the head of state had done so in order not to increase the popularity of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), a rival of the country's largest single party Smer-SD, which has helped him to be re-elected president.
At this point, Meseznikov does not expect the other three coalition parties to support SaS in campaigning for the turnout, while his colleague Miroslav Kusy says that the entire "exercise" makes little sense except for the question as to whether the purchasing price for government cars should be capped.
Kusy is confident the referendum will be a failure due to a low turnout as "voters have had just about enough of voting (in referendums)", adding that the fact that this latest referendum falls between the general election last month and the municipal elections in November doesn't augur well.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
