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Extraparliamentary Parties Hope to Make It Into Parliament
Wednesday 17 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 17 (TASR) - Six extra-parliamentary parties are hoping to exceed the 5-percent threshold required to enter Parliament in the June 12 general election, as is evident from the statements of their leaders.
A survey carried out by the MVK agency between February 22-March 1 has offered the best prospects of achieving this goal to Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), which polled over 9 percent, and to Bela Bugar's Most-Hid with 5.2 percent.
Notwithstanding the repeatedly high support figures for SaS, its chairman Richard Sulik is aiming simply to clear the 5-percent threshold. Most-Hid's election outcome, according to its chief Bela Bugar, depends on its ability to galvanise its grassroots supporters, by which it hopes to garner as much as 8 percent.
The best performer among those who in the survey failed to exceed 5 percent was the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) on 2.3 percent. Under current circumstances KSS chairman Jozef Hrdlicka still thinks that the party has a chance of returning to the legislature after four years in wilderness.
The survey revealed 1.1-percent voter support for the reconstructed Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), which has agreed on a coalition with the Greens (SZ), who polled 0.8 percent, the Rural Agrarian Party (ASV) and the Party of Civil Solidarity (SOS), who gained 0.5 percent combined. Although the coalition's combined support only reaches just over 2 percent, SDL chairman Marek Blaha told TASR that this grouping is well-positioned to gain the 7 percent required for coalitions.
Former LS-HZDS vice-chairman Milan Urbani's party Alliance for Europe polled 0.2 percent, but vice-chair Zdenka Kramplova nonetheless hopes to get more than 5 percent.
The MVK survey of 1,000 respondents didn't register any support for the newly-formed Union-Party for Slovakia, which has come into being by the merger of Free Forum, Liga and Civil Candidates. "Free Forum stood for a certain brand. Altering the name of the party three months prior to the election has considerably confused voters," MVK agency sociologist Pavel Haulik told TASR. The leaders of this party still claim an ambition to make it into Parliament after the June elections, however.
In the said survey the six political parties/groupings gained combined support of 18.8 percent, which is slightly more than half of the joint showing estimated by their leaders.
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