1999 presidential election in Slovakia

Standard of the Slovak President

Rudolf Schuster, winner of the election

Vladimír Mečiar lost to Schuster in the runoff election

The 1999 presidential election in Slovakia took place on May 15th (first round) and 29th (second round) May 1999. For the first time, Slovak citizens were able to elect a president because the previous president, Michal Kováč , was elected by parliament in 1993 . His term of office ended on March 2, 1998, after which Vladimír Mečiar , Ivan Gašparovič , Mikuláš Dzurinda and Jozef Migaš were the incumbent presidents before Rudolf Schuster won the election.

prehistory

After the establishment of independent Slovakia, the president was elected by parliament. In February 1993 Michal Kováč was elected first president. At the beginning of 1997, a large part of the opposition to the government under Prime Minister Mečiar carried out a campaign for a referendum on the amendment of the constitution with the aim of the future popular election of the president. After obtaining the necessary number of support signatures for this, President Michal Kováč called the referendum for May 23rd and 24th, 1997. At the same time, he also put the questions asked by the government headed by the HZDS about joining NATO and the stationing of foreign troops and nuclear weapons in Slovakia to the vote. When the referendum was held, however, the government, in a unilateral interpretation of a decision by the Constitutional Court , omitted the question of the presidential election. This led to the designation as a "prevented referendum" and an opposition campaign to boycott the vote. This failed with a participation of less than 10%, far below the minimum required participation of half of the eligible voters. As a result, there were violent internal political conflicts and the country's foreign policy isolation.

Michal Kováč's tenure ended on March 2, 1998; however, the National Council could not elect a new president as no candidate received a constitutional majority (91 out of 150). From this date, the incumbent presidents were Vladimír Mečiar and, from July 14, also Ivan Gašparovič. After the parliamentary elections in Slovakia in 1998 , it was Mikuláš Dzurinda and Jozef Migaš. The new government of Mikuláš Dzurinda (see Dzurinda I government ) was able to change the constitution; this happened on January 14, 1999.

Election result

First ballot

The first round of voting took place on May 15, 1999.

In the first round of the election, the government candidate Rudolf Schuster and the opposition representative Vladimír Mečiar dominated over all other candidates. However, none of them received an absolute majority, which meant that a second round of elections was necessary. Schuster won in the major cities of Bratislava and Košice , in the entire south of Slovakia, around Banská Bystrica , in the Spiš and Šariš ; the former Prime Minister Mečiar received the majority in the further Waag - and Neutra valleys , partly in central Slovakia and occasionally in the northeast and far west.

Note: Michal Kováč gave up his candidacy before the election.

Second ballot

The second round of voting took place on May 15, 1999.

In the second round of voting, Schuster won by around 14% and was thus president for the next five years. In contrast to the first round of elections, Schuster was also able to win the Bratislava area and the Záhorie region and also caught up in northern Slovakia in isolated cases; Mečiar, on the other hand, was only able to turn the majority around in one district.

Overall result

Result of the 1999 presidential election in Slovakia

candidate		Political party	1st ballot		2nd ballot
			be right	%	be right	%
	Rudolf Schuster	SOP	1,396,950	47.37	1,727,481	57.18
	Vladimír Mečiar	HZDS	1,097,956	37.23	1,293,642	42.81
	Magdaléna Vášáryová		194,635	6.60
	Ivan Mjartan		105.903	3.59
	Jan Slota	SNS	73,836	2.50
	Boris Zala		29,697	1.00
	Juraj Švec		24,077	0.81
	Juraj Lazarčík		15,386	0.50
	Ján Demikát		4,537	0.15
	Michal Kováč		5,425	0.18
total			2,948,402	100.00	3,021,123	100.00
Valid votes			2,948,402	98.79	3,021,123	99.08
Invalid votes			36,022	1.21	28,098	0.92
voter turnout			2,984,424	73.89	3,049,221	75.45
Eligible voters			4,038,899	-	4,041,181	-
Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

Web links

• Official result of the 1999 presidential election Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (Slovak)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Kronika Slovenska 2, Dušan Kováč et al., 1999, Fortuna Print, pp. 559, 562, 566-567 and 578 (Slovak)
2. ^ Marián Belko, Lubomír Kopeček: Referendum in theory and practice: the history of the Slovak referendums and their consequences , Central European Political Studies Review, Part 2-3, Volume V, spring-summer 2003
3. ^ New president to lift political tradition , The Slovak Spectator , January 25, 1999
4. ↑ Kováč withdrawal draws plot accusations , The Slovak Spectator, May 17, 1999