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Zahradnik Supports Bajan in Second Round of VUC Elections
Friday 20 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 20 (TASR) - Branislav Zahradnik, a candidate for Bratislava governor in the first round of the higher territorial unit (VUC) elections will support Vladimir Bajan (independent with the backing of Smer-SD, LS-HZDS, Green Party of Slovakia and HZD) in the second run-off round of the elections, he announced at a press conference on Friday.
According to Zahradnik, during his campaign he highlighted certain values such as independence, competence, ability to co-operate and those are - he thinks - more to be found in Vladimir Bajan than his competitor Pavol Freso (SDKU, Christian Democrat KDH, ethnic-Hungarian SMK, Civic Conservative Party/OKS, Freedom and Solidarity/SaS). "I think that represents a certain value ... to run in the elections as an independent candidate, to obtain support through a collection of signatures rather than to rely on the support of political parties," explained Zahradnik. He is convinced that in regional politics no red or blue solutions are valid, but good or bad.
"I couldn't support Pavol Freso, since he is a person who was actively participating in our dismissal from SDKU-DS for expressing our opinions. Nowadays, I dare say that he was part on the liquidation of SDKU-DS organisations in Bratislava from the very start in order to bolster his hopes of becoming governor," said Zahradnik.
Bajan welcomes Zahradnik's decision and he said he will do his utmost to get the support of former voters of Zahradnik. Bajan appreciated that Zahradnik did not lead a campaign based on confrontations and rancour. On the other hand, he considers Freso's campaign to be on the margins of good taste and normal competition.
Bajan does not see the victory of the blue spectrum in Bratislava as so exceptional – as has been presented. "SDKU-DS had had 18 Members of Regional Parliament (MRPs) so far, now it has 10. Smer-SD had nine, now it's 14," he added.
In the first VUC election round on November 14, Zahradnik obtained 15,422 votes, which is 14.88 percent. Pavol Freso with 42,794 votes (41.29 percent) came in first, followed by Bajan with 30,569 votes (29.49 percent).
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