Fico Won't Run As Candidate, Smer-SD Insists on Secret Vote
Bratislava, February 19 (TASR) – Head of Smer-SD Robert Fico has announced at a press conference that he won’t run as a candidate for the Constitutional Court in the next election of candidates.
Even if it were by secret ballot, he doesn’t want to raise suspicions that he wants to influence something.
Fico said that Smer-SD is willing to elect candidates, however, the party insists that the vote be by secret ballot. According to Fico, all members of the Smer-SD leadership including Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini want the vote to be by secret ballot. “We welcome the attitudes of our coalition partners the Slovak National Party (SNS) and Most-Hid, which publicly stated that they are also ready to talk about voting by secret ballot. This creates a presumption that we could elect a relevant number of candidates at the session that starts on March 26,” stated Fico.
According to the head of Smer-SD, there were no political agreements during the previous vote and his party voted as it voted to protest against the public vote. “Should the vote be by secret ballot, we’ll start finding agreements with the coalition partners,” promised Fico, adding that they’ll try to agree on the greatest possible number of candidates. They can’t do it for now as it’s unclear who will run as candidates.
Fico signalled that he doesn’t want to play any games. “We think that this president [Andrej Kiska] doesn’t have the moral right to decide but we can’t prevent him from doing so. We want to present him a real number of candidates so that the Constitutional Court can be operational,” said Fico. He also expects that further candidates will apply as his party didn’t see eighteen candidates that could be elected among the previous group of candidates.
Fico denies the alleged splits in his party. “Absolutely nothing is going on. Smer will commemorate the 20th anniversary of its establishment this year and we’re going to win the general elections,” stated Fico. When asked whether he would lead the party’s slate he answered that he is the head of the party and has the highest ambitions. He didn’t exclude that in twelve years he could run as a candidate for the Constitutional Court again.
He also mentioned that he doesn’t take it personally that Most-Hid refused to support his candidacy. However, he appreciated the approach of the head of SNS Andrej Danko. “He is the only person one can rely on. If I look at [head of Most-Hid] Bela Bugar or the president, the same thing doesn’t really apply,” said Fico.