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Paska: Parliamentary Elections Set for June 12
Monday 01 February 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, February 1 (TASR) - This year's parliamentary elections will be held on June 12, with the political parties required to submit their candidate lists for registration by March 14 (i.e. 90 days prior to election day), Parliamentary Chairman Pavol Paska (a Smer-SD nominee) announced on Monday.
All political parties will also need to pay a €16,596 deposit. The elections will take place on a single day, with voters choosing 150 MPs to represent for the next four-year term.
The parliamentary chairman is obliged to set and announce the day of elections at least 110 days before they take place. "I'm announcing the date of the elections in advance partly to give all institutions, especially the Interior Ministry, as well as political parties, and most importantly the public, enough time to prepare," said Paska, adding that he hopes for a high turnout "to give the election result as much legitimacy as possible".
Paska also called on political parties to come up with "comprehensible political programmes along with comprehensible ideas" to address the issues at hand.
Paska cautioned that although a moratorium won't be imposed on these elections, no preliminary results can be published on election day. "Only after the polling stations close can any results be published," he said.
Every political party or coalition registered in the elections will be entitled to televised political broadcasts totalling up to 30 minutes of air time, beginning 21 days prior to election day.
In response to the activities of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chairman Richard Sulik, who has announced that a petition committee has gathered enough votes to call a referendum, Paska said that this falls under the remit of President Ivan Gasparovic. "I don't quite understand what Mr. Sulik is after, as all the issues that he wants to tackle in this referendum have already been resolved," he said, adding that he doesn't find combining a referendum with parliamentary elections appropriate. He accused Sulik of engaging in a political adventure in an effort to gain attention.
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