Slovak citizens cannot vote from abroad in the upcoming presidential elections or in the elections to the European Parliament as they are only allowed to vote in the case of general elections. That is why some opposition parties joined the Srdcom doma (Home at Heart) initiative in filing a related complaint with the Constitutional Court on Wednesday.
We are one of the two EU countries in which the president can be elected by popular vote but where citizens who are abroad on the day of the election cannot vote, explains Samuel Zubo from the Home at Heart initiative. He also pointed to the fact that citizens of neighbouring countries can regularly vote from abroad.
The Interior Ministry stated in the autumn of 2018 that it was not planning any legal amendments that would enable Slovaks to vote from abroad in elections other than general elections. According to Interior Minister Denisa Sakova, the problem lies in votes counting.
We are not against applying the possibility of voting from abroad in other types of elections. However, there are many complications retarding the counting of votes. We don't want to start working on it in order to avoid week-long delays in announcing the results.
According to Denisa Sakova, an electronic vote would not resolve this problem either as the Interior Ministry is only beginning to learn how to avoid possible mistakes.
And the penetration of the electronic vote regarding all the necessary costs is very demanding so we don't think that the expenses and execution are directly in proportion at the moment.
The Constitution of the Slovak Republic guarantees state power gained by a public vote. However, it does not mention that the state authority can be voted for only if a citizen is in the territory of the Slovak Republic at the time of the election. The Emeritus judge of the Constitutional Court Ladislav Oros:
I also find it one of the most serious problems of the current Election Act. Theorists on the Constitution have been pointing at this detail for longer but nothing has been done so far. Non-compliance with the Constitution can really be observed as it guarantees a general public vote and thus the duty of the state to secure the chance to vote for everybody.
The motion concerning the election law has been signed by 37 opposition MPs. According to Martin Klus, the current system deprives 350,000 Slovak citizens of their right to take part in elections, which effects those living abroad for a long time and those having to travel away from Slovakia at the election time. The petition has been signed by 1,055 people so far, with 8,474 more joining it online. With the Constitutional Court lacking the majority of its members at the moment, its Emeritus member Ladislav Oros confirmed that even if it were fully functioning it would not be able to state the verdict in time to let the citizens vote at least in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament to be held in May.
