A defeat for all politicians

The parliamentary parties to a man declared that Saturday's Higher Territorial Unit regional elections were a good result for them. They drew attention to various figures, looking at whether they won more or fewer seats than they did last time. At the same time, they expressed regret that so few people came out to vote, blaming mainly the timing of the elections, the weather, and the fact that people still don't know what the regional elections actually are. But these are just excuses, reads a Pravda daily commentary.

The lack of voter interest, which becomes more apparent with every election, is the visiting card of Slovak politicians. The whole atmosphere in society, distaste at relations in the national parliament, the minority Government, the clumsiness of the opposition, - all these factors have influenced people, and put them off public affairs. It's just that the politicians pretend not to notice this. No party has got anything to shout about. Every candidate received a pitifully small number of votes.

Viewed in this light, the supposed success of parties on the right (SDKU, KDH and DS) over the opposition HZDS and Smer doesn't seem like such a great victory. Although people found better things to do on Saturday, they shouldn't be negligent over the next four years. The regional governments need to be watched carefully, as they will control considerable budgets, and oversee schools, clinics, hospitals, transport, etc. If the public is not vigilant, it will be the main loser.

Leader of the governing coalition Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda is glad that his Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU) has twice as many deputies in regional parliaments than previously. Chairman of the opposition Smer party Robert Fico views the results as positive, claiming that Smer's plans have been accomplished. The second strongest opposition party in Slovakia, the People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia is not quite satisfied with the results. The party admitted that they lost several parliamentary deputies and a few minor scandals perhaps discouraged their voters. Co-ruling Christian Democratic party (KDH) chairman Pavol Hrusovsky is satisfied with his party's results. The results may be an indication of the strength of the party's support, and serve as a signal to voters at next year's parliamentary elections, said Hrusovsky. Commenting on its very modest achievements, the Communist Party said the outcome only mirrors reality. Failure by its candidates indicates the party must devote more attention to regional policy. Pavol Rusko's liberal ANO party is satisfied with the outcome of the elections. Meanwhile the governing-coalition ethnic-Hungarian SMK party doesn't like the tactics of the parties that formed the so-called "Slovak coalition" to fight the regional elections in Nitra where a coalition was formed to break the dominance of the Hungarian party in the region.