The presidential elections in Slovakia are to take place on 15 March. This will be the fourth 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 whom receives more than 50% of legitimate votes; otherwise, two weeks’ after the 1st round, a 2nd round will take place, where the two most successful candidates 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 here at RSI we introduce all of them, in alphabetical order.
Jurišta Ján
A University pedagogue, formerly a journalist and a diplomat. During his military service he was accepted to the Latin American section of the International Broadcast of Radio Prague. He developed his journalist skills in Ecuador. During the time of Czechoslovakia he worked in the diplomatic service in Latin American states, in Cuba and in Argentina. Later he was also the Slovak ambassador to Buenos Aires with a mandate for Uruguay and Paraguay. Ján Jurišta worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague and in Bratislava and also held high ranking posts in the Communist party. He is currently visiting lecturer at the Faculty of management at Comenius University, teaching Spanish and a subject called Global processes of world economics. A number of his publishings also deal with this topic. The 70 year old Ján Jurišta comes from central Slovakia, is a candidate and supporter of the Communist party of Slovakia.
Kiska Andrej
Businessman and philanthropist Kiska studied electro technology, but professionally focused on doing business in the loans industry. When he left the business he started a charity and developed it into the biggest of its kind in Slovakia. This charity sends monthly allowances to families with children who found themselves in financial need due to an illness. Since the year 2011 this foundation has also been active in the Czech Republic. Andrej Kiska is the author of the book Take life into your own hands. In the year 2006 he was named Manager of the year by subscribers of the monthly Trend and in the year 2011 he was awarded the Crystal Wing award – in the category philanthropy. In this presidential election he is running as a non-partisan, independent candidate. He is 50 years old and is one of the youngest presidential candidates of the campaign. He comes from northern Slovakia, from the town of Poprad.
