National Anti-corruption Unit Detains Candidate for Nitra Mayor Stefek
Bratislava, September 24 (TASR) – The National Anti-corruption Unit detained the candidate for city mayor Stefan Stefek, in Nitra on Monday morning Dennik N daily reported citing a police source as well as his defence lawyer.
Stefek is accused of indirect corruption when he worked for the regional water utility Zapadoslovenska Vodarenska Spolocnost. Details are not known yet.
The detention of the candidate for the post of Nitra mayor, who is now serving as municipal and regional councillor Stefan Stefek by police officers from the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) is considered by his collaborators but also some of his rivals in the local elections to be an unfair election campaign tactic, TASR learnt on Monday.
His fellow worker in the municipal and regional parliament Anna Smehilova was also surprised by his detention. “I expected the campaign to be rough, but I didn’t anticipate it to go this far. I don’t know what exactly happened because I only have information from the media. I’ve known Mr. Stefek for a long time as a very honest man. If such steps should be part of an anti-campaign, I’d be very sorry,” said Smehilova, who is with him on the slate for the local election slated to be held in November.
Stefek’s detention is also considered to be an unfair pre-election attack by his rival for the post of Nitra mayor and municipal councillor Renata Kolencikova. Some time ago, both were members and officials of Smer-SD but later quit the party. In recent years, while working as Nitra councillors, they often had conflicts.
According to Kolencikova, no one should take such steps before the elections. “I don’t like it when such things happen. I consider this to be an attack by incumbent [Nitra] mayor Jozef Dvonc. They’re trying to intimidate him,” she said.
Eleven candidates are fighting for the post of Nitra mayor in the local elections that are to be held in November. Besides Stefek, who is an independent candidate, there is, for example, incumbent mayor Jozef Dvonc running for the Smer-SD and Slovak National Party (SNS) coalition. The candidate of the coalition composed of Ordinary People (OLaNO), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), Chance and We Are Family is Jan Gresso. There are also an additional six independent candidates.
