2004 presidential election in Slovakia

Standard of the Slovak President

Ivan Gašparovič , winner of the election

Vladimír Mečiar lost to Gašparovič in the runoff election

The 2004 presidential elections in Slovakia took place on April 3rd (first round) and 17th (second round) April 2004. It was the second direct election of the President of Slovakia .

Ivan Gašparovič was able to defeat Vladimír Mečiar in the second round of the election and was elected third president.

Candidates and Surveys

The three most promising candidates for the presidency were the Foreign Minister of the second government of Mikuláš Dzurinda , Eduard Kukan (supported by the ruling SDKÚ ), the former three-time Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar (supported by the opposition party HZDS ) and Ivan Gašparovič (supported by Smer and HZD ) .

From the entire field of twelve candidates, the incumbent President Rudolf Schuster (formally independent, supported by the KSS ), the former Slovak ambassador to the United States Martin Bútora and the former parliamentary speaker František Mikloško (supported by the KDH ) were noteworthy.

According to a survey by the MVK agency in March 2004, the government candidate Kukan was predicted to be the winner in the first election round with 31%; Ivan Gašparovič would have received 21.1% of the vote and would have advanced to the second round of voting. Mečiar (20.5%), Bútora (8.5%), Schuster (7.7%) and Mikloško (7.3%) would have failed in the first round.

Election result

First ballot

In the first round of voting, Vladímir Mečiar won ahead of Ivan Gašparovič and Eduard Kukan, who failed in third place. Kukan got the majority in the major cities of Bratislava and Košice , in the Záhorie and Podunajsko regions ; Ivan Gašparovič could only win in absolute terms in the Lučenec and Martin districts . In the rest of Slovakia, Mečiar dominated.

At the same time, a referendum initiated by the opposition and the trade unions on the removal of the government and early elections took place; which was unsuccessful due to the low turnout (35.86%).

Note: Ľubomír Roman gave up his candidacy before the election.

Second ballot

In the second election round, Gašparovič won with almost 60%; Mečiar was able to achieve a majority in only 8 out of 50 constituencies.

Overall result

Result of the 2004 presidential election in Slovakia

candidate		Political party	1st ballot		2nd ballot
			be right	%	be right	%
	Vladimír Mečiar	ĽS-HZDS	650.242	32.73	722.368	40.08
	Ivan Gašparovič	HZD	442,564	22.28	1,079,592	59.91
	Eduard Kukan	SDKÚ	438.920	22.09
	Rudolf Schuster	independent	147,549	7.42
	František Mikloško	KDH	129,414	6.51
	Martin Bútora	independent	129,387	6.51
	Ján Králik	SDĽ	15,873	0.79
	Jozef Kalman	Left block	10,221	0.51
	Július Kubík	independent	7,734	0.38
	Jozef Šesták	independent	6,785	0.34
	Stanislav Bernat	independent	5,719	0.28
	Ľubomír Roman	ANO	1,806	0.09
total			1,986,214	100.00	1,801,960	100.00
Valid votes			1,986,214	98.59	1,801,960	98.56
Invalid votes			28,405	1.41	26,347	1.44
voter turnout			2,014,619	47.94	1,828,307	43.50
Eligible voters			4,204,899	-	4,202,597	-
Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

Web links

• Official result of the 2004 presidential election Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (Slovak, English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kukan and Mečiar continue leading polls; Gašparovič closes gap , The Slovak Spectator March 31, 2004, accessed July 12, 2010
2. ↑ Referendum void, turnout too low , The Slovak Spectator on April 5, 2004, accessed on July 12, 2010
3. ^ Roman quits, Smer supports Gašparovič , The Slovak Spectator on March 22, 2004, accessed on July 12, 2010