The European Parliamentary Elections will take place in one week, with public voting scheduled to occur on Saturday the 24th of May, 2014, between 07:00 to 22:00. According to the current text of the law, 13 Members of European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected from Slovakia, with a record number of 29 political parties and 333 Slovak candidates putting themselves forward for the public to choose from.
Candidates will be chosen based on a proportional representation system, with voters being able to attribute preferential votes to 2 candidates of one party or coalition. Mandates will be allocated only to parties or coalitions which have exceeded the 5 percent threshold from an overall number of valid votes. The sum of valid votes for parties or coalitions that are proceeding to the second counting is divided by number of mandates plus one. The result is a republic vote number. The sum of valid votes that the political party or coalition received is divided by the republic vote number and political parties or coalitions will get mandates depending on how many times this vote number is included in all valid votes received by this political party or coalition.
The official election campaign began 21 days before the election is to take place, and a moratorium on election campaigns will commence 48 hours before the start of voting. This moratorium will continue throughout the entire voting day. In order to vote in these elections, voters must be at least eighteen years old on the polling day, hold a permanent residence permit in the Slovak Republic, and must not have had their voting rights removed in their EU member country of origin. Counting of the votes will take place immediately after the polling stations have closed, and results will begin to be broadcast only after the end of the elections in Slovakia. Voting in these elections is not compulsory.
