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Bugar and Sulik Due to Discuss Forms of Pre-election Co-operation
Monday 11 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 11 (TASR) - Most-Hid, a non-parliamentary ethnic-Hungarian party that has also opened its door to Slovaks, and the non-parliamentary rightist Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chaired by the author of Slovakia's tax reform Richard Sulik are set to discuss various alternatives for pre-election co-operation, Most-Hid chairman Bela Bugar confirmed for TASR on Monday.
According to Bugar, one of the options is to form a joint party for this year's general election. "There's also the option to set up an election party, but maybe it's too late for that. The question is whether voters would get used to it," said Bugar.
Another option is to form a pre-election coalition, but this is rather risky, as it increases the threshold needed to gain seats in Parliament from 5 to 7 percent of votes, due to changes made to the election act by the government of Vladimir Meciar (LS-HZDS) in the 1990s. "I wouldn't risk this," said Bugar, expressing his belief that his ethnically-mixed party can make it into Parliament on its own. He pointed out, however, that the party is taking the negotiations with SaS seriously. "We'll appoint a negotiating team at the session today (Monday). It will be at least three people who will start to hold official discussions with the SaS team," said the former leader of the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party. He has personally met Sulik twice to discuss matters, but wants to extend the discussion to the level of broader party structures.
"We'll wait for specific proposals," Sulik told TASR on the same day, adding that serious negotiations will only begin after Most-Hid appoints its team.
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