Meciar and Gasparovic to the Second Round of Presidential Election

Vladimir Meciar and Ivan Gasparovic obtained the most votes in the first round of the direct presidential elections in Slovakia on Saturday 03 April 2004. Vladimir Meciar dominted the first round with about 33% of votes, while the second Ivan Gasparovic was closely followed by the coallition candidate and Foreign Affairs Minister Eduard Kukan. The current President Rudolf Schuster, and two other candidates Martin Butora and Frantisek Miklosko finished at the next three positions. Vladimir Meciar was at the first position in seven regions out of eight, while Eduard Kukan obtained the most votes in the capital Bratislava. The second round of presidential elections between former party colleagues Vladimir Meciar and Ivan Gasparovic will take place on Saturday 17 April 2004. Then the winner of the simple majority of votes will become the third President of the Slovak Republic.
At the same time as presidential elections, a referendum on sooner parliamentarian elections took place. However, the attendance did not reach the necessary 50%, which means, that the referendum was not valid.