Slovakia goes to the polls
today for a presidential runoff election in which it will be
decided whether populist premier Robert Fico will be forced into
an uncomfortable five-year cohabitation with a pro-EU liberal
figure or will have one of his staunch allies as president,
consolidating a nationalist and pro-Russian drift that began
last year. Indeed, a head-to-head contest looms between a former
premier and current speaker of parliament, Peter Pellegrini, and
a past foreign minister, Ivan Korcok, who won the first round
two weeks ago.
Four recent polls by reputable demographic institutes predict
no sure winner but agree that a high turnout would favor
Pellegrini.In the first round, voter turnout was 52 percent. The
duel is the closest since direct election of the head of state
was introduced in Slovakia in 1999. The 60-year-old 2020-2022
foreign minister, backed by the pro-Western opposition, had
surprisingly won the first round with 42.51 percent of the vote,
garnering nearly 124,000 more support than Pellegrini, who
placed second with 37 percent as an expression of the current
government's left-wing nationalism. But according to some
analysts, this 5.5 basis point advantage may not be enough to
beat 48-year-old Pellegrini, who had been premier between 2018
and 2020, on the ballot.Most voters who supported the defeated
candidates in the first round are more likely to support
Pellegrini than Korcok, a political scientist argued.
Polling stations, open from 7 a.m. local and Italian time, close
at 10 p.m. and significant results are expected around midnight.
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