Slovak election date announced; campaigns now underway

Slovak parliamentary elections will take place on Saturday, March 5, 2016. This was announced on Thursday, November 12 by Speaker of Parliament Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) at a press conference. "I signed the agreement on parliamentary elections, setting the date at March 5, 2016. Since 1989, citizens will have their ninth possibility to choose representatives in free elections", he said. Pellegrini also called for a decent election campaign. "I would urge all political parties and movements to keep the campaign fair, correct, and polite", he said, asking parties to avoid abusive attacks on individuals. With the election date announced, today marks the official start of all election campaigning. All political parties running in the elections are required to submit their applications no later than 90 days before the polling day (up to December 6), and are required to pay an election deposit of €17,000. This deposit will be returned to those parties which receive at least two percent of all election votes. As for spending, political parties are allowed to spend a maximum of €3 million on their election campaigns, however each party must have a transparent election spending account. 48 hours before the day of the election there will be a media blackout on political activities, and two weeks before the election it is prohibited for media to publish election surveys. Foreigners living and working in Slovakia are unable to take part in Slovak parliamentary elections, with voting only applicable to Slovak citizens aged at least 18 years.