Parliament will vote on changes to overseas voting at the earliest possible opportunity after the debate in Parliament concludes, Parliament vice-chair Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD) declared on Thursday.
Gašpar said that he can't predict the outcome, as the governing coalition commands only the narrowest possible majority of 76 MPs. SNS leader and parliamentary vice-chair Andrej Danko is insisting on changes to the rules governing preferential voting, which allows candidates to move up party lists.
"I don't want to speculate in advance about the outcome. I'll be self-critical here: 76 is the narrowest possible majority. Someone could fail to turn up or even express a different opinion during the vote. However, everyone has agreed that overseas voting itself needs to be changed and adjusted as we propose," said Gašpar, referring to the vote on the electoral law.
He said that the SNS-sponsored proposal to reduce the number of preferential votes isn't particularly important to Smer-SD.
"Our priority is the substance: ensuring that the law genuinely changes the way in which people vote from abroad. It's not about banning or abolishing it, as the opposition claims, but about adapting it in the way we propose," he underlined.
Gašpar rejected claims that the legislation is being amended just one year before the election. He stated that the bill has been before Parliament for a year and under discussion long enough for the issue to have been raised in society and in political debate well ahead of the election.
He expressed confidence that Parliament will deal with the legislation by the end of the year.
"I think that the option of voting for candidates by preference should be retained, but the number should be reduced to two. Nobody will be disadvantaged. Those who are popular will still be able to move up the lists through preference votes," Danko told reporters, outlining the SNS proposal.
The party wants voters in parliamentary elections to be able to cast preferential votes for only two candidates, instead of the current four. Danko questioned how party leaders can manage their teams when "virtually anyone, from any position on the list, can gradually secure an unlimited number of preferential votes".
Danko also supports scrapping postal voting from abroad. He argued that the issue isn't about restricting anyone's rights, but about ensuring that voters make their decisions on election day, during the campaign, on the basis of comprehensive information.
"It's important to seek modern tools for voting from abroad. I think that it's only a matter of time before, for example, voting apps are introduced. Postal voting, however, doesn't reliably guarantee either anonymity or compliance with the timing of the election, and the opposition continues to exploit this. Nobody is abolishing voting from abroad," said the SNS leader.
Smer-SD is behind the electoral law amendment, which is currently at its second reading. The changes would introduce a new method of voting from abroad in parliamentary elections and extend the option to presidential elections as well. Instead of the current postal voting system, Slovak citizens abroad would be able to vote only at Slovak diplomatic missions.
The coalition SNS has also submitted an amendment to the bill concerning preferential voting, which allows candidates to move up their party's electoral list.
