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Social issues Public life Elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic
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Elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic Print
According to Article 1 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic take place based on general, equal and direct election, by a secret ballot, with a regard to the principle of proportional representation.
The elections take place on the whole territory of the Slovak Republic during one day – Saturday. The elections take place on the date set, from 7 am until 10 pm. If the local conditions require so, major of a municipality may schedule the beginning of the ballot sooner, but no more than two hours earlier.

The Speaker of the National Council declares the elections and sets the date for the elections at least 110 days in advance. The declaration of the elections is published in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic and on the website of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.

Election Rights

Right to vote (“active election right”) is granted to every citizen of the Slovak Republic, who is at least eighteen (18) years old on the elections day.

There are some restrictions to the exercising of this election right. They apply to those:
  • whose personal freedom is restricted according to the law in order to protect the public health
  • who are serving a prison sentence
  • who have been deprived of legal capacity
Any citizen of the Slovak Republic, who is at least twenty-one (21) years old on the elections day, has permanent residence in the Slovak Republic and is not disqualified from exercising the right to vote by serving a prison sentence or a deprivation of legal capacity, can be elected (has a “passive election right”) as a Deputy of the National Council of the Slovak Republic according to  Article 3 of the Parliamentary Elections Act.

Register of the Voters and a Voting Certificate

A citizen of the Slovak Republic, permanently residing its territory and entitled to vote, is registered according to Article 6 par. 1 of the Parliamentary Elections Act in the permanent register of voters, according to the place of a permanent residence.

Each voter can be registered only in one permanent register. The permanent register of voters is compiled and maintained by each municipality and in the large cities Bratislava and Košice, by the city districts. A municipality delivers the register of voters to the district electoral commission in two copies at least two hours before the start of the election.

A voter who is not able to vote in the polling district where he/she is officially registered must apply for a voting certificate from the municipality; the voter will then be deleted from the local electoral register and a note about the issue of his/her voting certificate will be attached to it. Such a deletion is valid only until the completion of the vote by the voting certificate.

A voter must submit the application for a voting certificate in person or through an authorized person no sooner than 30 and no later than 2 days before the elections day – during the working hours of a responsible municipality body. A municipality issues the voting certificate on the day of the submission of the application. The municipality keeps an evidence of the issued voting certificates.

Electoral Commissions

For the elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Central electoral commission, regional and district electoral commissions are established. Any citizen, who the right to vote and is not subject to an election right restrictions, can become a member of the electoral commission. He/she can be a member of only one electoral commission.

A candidate for a position of a deputy cannot be a member of any electoral commission. Electoral commissions are created from equal number of representatives of the political parties, the political movements or the coalitions, which submitted the candidate bills.

A political party or a coalition, whose candidate bill has been registered, delegates - at least 55 days before the elections day - one member and one alternate into the regional and district electoral commission. Regional and district electoral commissions must have at least 5 members.

If a regional electoral commission is not created in a way that is stipulated in the law, or if the number of its members decreases under the legally set minimum and there is no alternate, missing members shall be nominated by the head of a regional office.

Central Electoral Commission

The Central Electoral Commission – according to Article 15 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, exercises the following duties:
  1. examines and registers the candidate bills
  2. supervises the readiness of the electoral commissions at lower levels to provide for the duties set to them by the law
  3. discusses the Ministry information about the organization and the logistics of the elections
  4. discusses the information about the preparation of the automatic processing of the election results from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
  5. discusses the information about securing equal assignment of the broadcasting times in television and radio to all parties during the election campaign
  6. gathers and publishes the election results
  7. produces a minute-book about the election results and delivers it to the Speaker of the National Council
  8. issues the certificates of election to the elected candidates and transfers the election documents for a deposit at the Ministry

Candidate Bill

According to Article 18 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, the candidate bill must contain the following:
  • Full name of the political party or the coalition
  • List of candidates, containing their name, surname, academic title, date of birth, occupation, permanent address and their rank on the candidate bill expressed by an Arabic numeral
  • Signature of the statutory representative of the political party and an imprint of its official stamp. The candidate bill of a coalition must be signed and stamped by the statutory representatives of all political parties, which form the coalition.

Necessary attachments to the candidate bill:

  • a declaration of each candidate named in the candidate bill, signed by his/her hand, stating that they agree with their candidacy, that they are not running for election on another candidate bill and are not aware of any obstacles for their election
  • attestation that the party paid the election caution of  16 596 Eur
  • announcement about the designation of the plenipotentiary of the political party or the coalition and his/her alternate, with their names, surnames and the postal address
There can be no more than 150 candidates on any candidate bill of a political party or a coalition.
 

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