Slovakia Votes In Election Haunted By Journalist's Murder

Bratislava, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Feb, 2020 ) :Slovakia's populist coalition faces a fight for survival in a general election on Saturday, overshadowed by the 2018 gangland-style murder of a journalist that has upended politics in the eurozone country plagued by graft.

Allegedly contracted by a businessman with connections to politicians, the hit on Jan Kuciak has become a lightning rod for public outrage at endemic corruption.

Hit hard by the fallout of the murder, surveys suggest that Robert Fico's governing populist-left Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party is running neck-and-neck with OLaNO, a surging centre-right opposition party focused on combatting graft.

"People want change, especially an anti-corruption drive," political analyst Grigorij Meseznikov told AFP, adding that Fico's Smer-SD "is seen as being responsible for corruption".

"The murder of Jan Kuciak has reconfigured the entire political scene, as new liberal-democratic parties emerged and immediately gained support," he said, adding that a gaggle of centre-right and liberal opposition parties have a shot at forming a government.

Kuciak's killing, which triggered the largest anti-government protests since communist times, toppled Fico as prime minister, his party colleague Peter Pellegrini taking over the reins.

It later propelled Zuzana Caputova, a liberal lawyer and anti-graft activist, out of nowhere to win last year's presidential race.

More change is expected on Saturday, according to commentators in Bratislava, but the outcome of the highly fragmented vote is unclear.

Although Fico has ruled out a post-election coalition deal with the far-right Our Slovakia LSNS, the two parties joined forces this week in parliament to pass a Smer-SD bill giving pensioners extra benefits, a move the opposition slammed as pork-barrel electioneering.

Capitalising on its anti-establishment posture and a backlash against Slovakia's impoverished Roma minority, surveys show the LSNS could double its current 10 seats in the 150-member lower house.