Sakova Sheds Light on Part Cut from Her Speech on Abroad Voters and Election

Bratislava, February 10 (TASR) – The Interior Minister Denisa Sakova (Smer-SD) on Monday at a joint briefing with Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) objected against the statements saying that she wants to hamper voting from abroad by post, calling on all the eligible voters to take part in the February general election.

Sakova was responding to a video, in which she can be heard saying to an audience that the upcoming general election will be “a bit more curious” because roughly 60,000 people have applied to vote from abroad by post. “I really call on you to let’s not allow such people, who live abroad…” says Sakova in the video, however, the footage doesn’t continue any more as it ends right in the middle of Sakova’s statement.

According to Pellegrini, the public witnessed a case of massive manipulation as the video was incomplete. The prime minister put the blame on NGOs and the media that “didn’t try to look for the truth”, adding that he and the minister value every vote and will do their utmost to let everyone cast it. Pellegrini went on to add the right to vote is the public’s constitutional right. “The minister said nothing wrong. She called on people to go vote. I do the same thing,” he noted.

Sakova then presented the part of her speech that was cut from the video. “At last but not least, I must say that this election will be a bit more curious because we’ve registered 60,000 applications to vote by post from people who live abroad. I really only call on you to let’s not allow such people who live abroad the whole time and who only learn about Slovakia’s image from the media along with voters from the capital to decide the result of this general election. I ask everyone to go vote on February 29 so that you don’t stay home and then pointlessly regret that you didn’t have a say on the election result,” she stated.