BRATISLAVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st March, 2020) The turnout at the Saturday parliamentary election in Slovakia, which appears to have the ruling and opposition parties running close, was over 50 percent, according to the chairman of the country's Central Election Committee, Eduard Barany.
"At 23:00 [21:00 GMT on Saturday] the last polling stations closed, the participation of the population in the election was rather high this time - over 50 percent on average, in some areas the turnout surpassed 60 percent. Over 14 parties and movements competed for 150 mandates," Barany told journalists.
According to Slovakia's central statistical office, the ruling party, Direction-Social Democracy (Smer) was coming ahead in the election after 1.5 percent of the votes were counted. Smer had 25 percent of the votes, while opposition movement Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLANO) had 19.8 percent of the votes.
After 9 percent of the votes were counted, the statistical office said that OLANO was winning with 22.7 percent of the votes, while Smer had 22.1 percent.
According to a Focus exit poll, OLANO has 25.8 percent of the votes, coming ahead of the ruling party.
A Focus survey published before the two-week campaign blackout showed that the opposition bloc could win a constitutional majority in Slovakia's parliament and unseat Smer.
