Total of 21 Candidates for Parliament Taken Off Slates Already

Bratislava, February 22 (TASR) – A total of 21 candidates are now out of the running for the parliamentary election (March 5), TASR learnt on Monday from the Interior Ministry’s website.

There are currently 2,839 candidates standing in the election, and the number may go down further.

Candidates on slates can give up their candidacy or be dismissed by their party, and a whole political entity can give up its slate up to 48 hours prior to election day.

The highest number of candidates to step down, nine, were on the slate of Courage-Great National and Pro-Russian Coalition. They were dismissed by the party. Their names are Jana Varmuzova, two with the name Frantisek Varmuza, Jana Malikova, Jana Sykorova, Bozena Trembosova, Veronika Balsikova, Juraj Mesaros and Maria Balazova. Direct Democracy has removed three candidates, namely Juraj Chlebik, Boris Karacsony and Barbora Karacsony.

The Hungarian Community Party (SMK) has dismissed two candidates, Kinga Falkenova and Bela Halasz. Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) has removed Michal Albert, while Kotleba-People’s Party Our Slovakia has dropped Miroslav Simek.

Those who have given up their candidacy are Lubos Maxina (from the Siet slate), Jozef Bojcik (Most-Hid), Anton Fric (OLaNO-NOVA), Katarina Kosarova (TIP) and Valeria Petrovska (KSS).

The names still actually appear on the slates, but the ministry has stated that they won’t be taken into consideration when seats are allocated.

The parliamentary election will be held on Saturday, March 5. More than 4.4 million Slovak citizens aged 18 and over on election day are eligible to vote. The campaign will end with a 48-hour moratorium prior to election day. A total of 23 political entities are running for seats in the House.