23 parties to run in 2016 Parliamentary elections

23 political parties will compete for voters' ballots in the upcoming Parliamentary elections, which are to be held on March 5th 2016. 24 parties had put forward their slate, however the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) refused to pay the deposit and will therefore most likely not be allowed to run in the election. The parties had to hand in their election slates, with up to 150 names of candidates and pay the election deposit of 17 000 EUR by December 6^th. Now the next step is the election committee, which will audit and verify the party registrations by December 26^th. The campaign officially started in mid November 2015 and political parties are allowed to spend up to 3 million EUR on it. Moreover they must lead a "transparent" back account. There are more than 4,4 million eligible voters for this election and it will also be possible to vote from abroad. This concerns Slovak citizens with a permanent residence abroad as well as those who have a permanent residence in Slovakia but will be out of the country at the time of the election, which is on March 5^th 2016.