Slovak presidential election, 2014

Presidential elections were held in Slovakia on 15 March 2014, with a second round on 29 March 2014.

After a first round, in which no candidate secured majority, Robert Fico and Andrej Kiska qualified to second round. On 29 March 2014, Kiska won the second round of the elections after securing 59.39% of the popular vote, compared to Fico's 40.61%.

Kiska succeeded incumbent Ivan Gašparovič, who was unable to run due to term limits established by the Constitution.

First round

Candidates

All candidates who wished to contest the presidency were required to collect no less than 15.000 individual signatures in order to qualify for the race. In addition they had to officially submit their candidacy to the election commission in writing no later than 9 January 2014. At least one would-be candidate, Leonid Chovanec, a citizen from Košice who intended to run as an independent candidate, gave up his candidacy on January 6 citing "unequal conditions for people in their access to the candidacy for the post of president”. He did not manage to collect the 15,000 signatures to support his presidential bid. On January 9, Speaker of parliament Pavol Paska officially announced that the following candidates had been approved.

* Gyula Bárdos – member of the Party of the Hungarian Community
* Jozef Behýl – businessman and civil activist
*Ján Čarnogurský – former chair of the Christian Democratic Movement
*Robert Fico – incumbent prime minister, nominee of Direction – Social Democracy
* Viliam Fischer – cardiovascular surgeon
*Pavol Hrušovský – conservative politician of Christian Democratic Movement
* Ján Jurišta – former Slovak ambassador to Argentina, supported by the Communist Party of Slovakia
*Andrej Kiska – former businessman and philanthropist
*Milan Kňažko – actor and leader of the Velvet Revolution
*Stanislav Martinčko – businessman and chair of the Coalition of Citizens of Slovakia
*Milan Melník – scientist in coordination and bioinorganic chemistry
*Helena Mezenská – MP for the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities
*Radoslav Procházka – constitutional lawyer and former member of the Christian Democratic Movement
* Jozef Šimko – mayor of Rimavská Sobota

;Withdrawn candidates
* Lubica Blaskova – entered the presidential race on 7 April 2013, but stepped down on 9 January 2014.
* Peter Osuský – entered the race on 12 June 2013, but withdrew on 29 January 2014 and his nominational party Freedom and Solidarity then favourised Radoslav Procházka.

Campaign

The political right was fragmented; the People’s Platform (an alliance of three right-wing parties) failed to agree on a common candidate. Christian Democratic Movement and Most-Hid announced that they supported Pavol Hrušovský, but the third party, Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ-DS) originally refused to agree. According to multiple sources, SDKÚ would have preferred former Prime Minister Iveta Radičová as their candidate, however, she made clear that she did not want to run for president again. Later, after Fico announced its candidacy, SDKÚ-DS eventually decided to support Hrušovský. Shortly before first round of elections some members of SDKÚ-DS and Most-Híd suggested their supporters should choose different candidate in the upcoming elections, following polls which gave Hrušovský only small chance of progressing to second round.

Robert Fico

The ruling Smer party selected incumbent Prime Minister Robert Fico as its official candidate. According to opinion polls, Fico dominated his opponents, who were divided, and he would advance to the second round with a double digit lead. In addition, polls showed that he was most likely to win the presidential election. However, his party would have had to replace him as PM and party leader, meaning that Smer would have had to produce a popular and credible leader to follow Fico. As early as February, Fico was endorsed by the National trade union center when The Confederation of Labour Unions (KOZ) officially called upon its members to vote for Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Andrej Kiska

Andrej Kiska was the first candidate to officially announce his presidential candidacy and his billboards appeared around Slovakia long before the names of his competitors were known. He was officially running as an independent candidate and had no political background whatsoever. Prior to the first round Kiskas campaign mostly stressed his independence, including his financial independence, which mean that he didn't have to report to any political parties. Furthermore, he promoted his lack of political involvement as one of his strengths, while his website featured the slogan “The First Independent President”. Eventually, Andrej Kiska won the election on 29 March with nearly 60% of the popular vote, becoming the first president in the history of Slovak republic never to have been a member of the Communist Party, nor any other political party.

Radoslav Procházka

The young constitutional lawyer Prochazka, who campaigned as the conservative candidate, was formerly a member with the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), but ran as an independent. His campaign mainly targeted the large catholic population, with issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage and traditional family values. His campaign also stressed his youth as a strength, as well as his background as a constitutional lawyer, with his official slogans reading: "A young president? Why not!" ( sk, Mladý prezident? Prečo nie!) and "Strong president. I will protect your rights!" ( sk, Silný prezident. Budem chrániť vaše práva!)

Peter Osuský

The Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party announced on 11 June 2013 that Peter Osuský would be their candidate for the presidency. Due to poor results in polls, Osuský decided to pull off his candidature. SaS reacted by supporting Radoslav Procházka for upcoming first round of elections.

Opinion polls

First round

Second round

Second round

During the second round all independent candidates and some right-wing parties supported Kiska. These candidates secured more than 60% votes including the ones received by Kiska in first round. Fico secured 12% more votes than in the first round. High turn out in second round helped Kiska defeat Fico by 20 points.

Campaign

The second round of the election, which pitted Robert Fico against Andrej Kiska, saw the candidates engage in a series of televised presidential debates. Fico repeatedly accused Kiska of having links to the Church of Scientology, but stopped short of calling him a member. Kiska however, confirmed his Catholic faith, and filed criminal charges against Fico. All the defeated candidates from the first round subsequently backed Kiska, while international social-democrats such as French president Francois Hollande and Speaker of the European Parliament Martin Schultz endorsed Fico.

Results

References

External links

Rapport de force avant les présidentielles

{{Slovak presidential elections

2014
2014 elections in Europe
2014 in Slovakia
March 2014 events in Europe