The presidential elections in Slovakia are taking place on March 15. This is to be the 4th time that Slovak citizens will choose their president via a secret ballot in a direct election. It is a two-round voting system. The winner might emerge also in the 1st round, if there is a candidate who receives more than 50% of legitimate votes, otherwise, in two weeks’ time the 2nd round will take place whereby the two most successful candidates from the 1st round will meet. The one who gets the most votes in this round will reside in the Presidential palace for the next five years. There are 14 presidential candidates and we will introduce all of them in alphabetical order.
Čarnogurský Ján
A lawyer from Bratislava, he has a history of political dissident being imprisoned "for subversion of the Republic". For defending people involved in political trials he was excluded from the bar. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that toppled the previous communist regime he was involved in politics as a founding member of the Christian Democratic Movement and its chairman. Last autumn he announced the departure from the party. Jan Čarnogurský was an MP of both the Czechoslovak and the Slovak Parliaments. He was also Slovak Prime Minister and Minister of Justice. About 14 years ago he retired from active politics and founded a law firm. This septuagenarian is bidding for the presidency as an independent candidate. He presents himself as a Russophile, a Polonophile, and a Francophile.
Fico Róbert
A lawyer born in the Western Slovak town of Topoľčany, he specialized in criminal and human rights law. After graduating from university in Slovakia he continued his studies in the U.S., England, Finland, Belgium, and France. The 49 year old is currently at his second mandate as Slovakia’s Prime Minister. In the past, Fico represented the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights, and the European Commission of Human Rights. He was a member of the permanent delegation of the National Council of the Slovak Republic to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He began his political career as a member of the Communist Party then he formed his own party, the current Smer-Social Democracy, which at the most recent parliamentary elections won a majority of seats in Parliament.
