VZCZCXRO2909
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHSL #0484/01 3231603
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191603Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0264
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHSL/AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA 0311

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000484 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/CE J. MOORE AND M. LIBBY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM LO
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA PAINTED RED: FICO'S SMER STEAMROLLS OPPOSITION IN 
REGIONAL ELECTIONS 
 
REF: Bratislava 476 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000484  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. Summary: The 2009 regional elections were a smashing victory 
for PM Robert Fico's ruling party, SMER ("Direction").  In four 
of the eight regions, SMER-supported regional governor or 
"zupan" candidates won over 50 percent of the vote and do not 
require a run-off; in the remaining four regions, the second 
round will take place on November 28.  Of the 408 regional 
parliamentarians elected, 175 were from SMER-HzDS (Party of the 
Movement for a Democracy) coalitions.  Voter turn-out was 22.9 
percent, nearly 3 percent higher than the turnout in 2005.  End 
Summary. 
 
SMER Doubles Its Regional Parliamentarians 
 
¶2. In the 2005 elections, SMER won 70 regional parliament 
seats.  This year, SMER nearly doubled that number, winning 135 
seats.  PM Fico said this election demonstrated that SMER is the 
"stable, politically dominant party of Slovakia." In the zupan 
races, SMER's candidates in Kosice (Zdenko Trebula), Zilina 
(Juraj Blanar), Nitra (Milan Belica), and Trnava (Tibor Mikus) 
won outright in the first round.  SMER candidates in Trencin 
(Pavol Sedlacek), Banska Bystrica (Vladimir Manka), and Presov 
(Peter Chudik) are heavily favored for the second round. 
 
Bratislava the Last Bastion of the Center-Right 
 
¶3. The opposition Social Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU) 
-- Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) coalition has two 
candidates who advanced to the second round in Banska Bystrica 
(Jozef Mikus) and Bratislava (Pavol Freso).  However, only Freso 
is favored to win, which would make him the only non-SMER 
zupan.  Bratislava is also the only region where the SDKU-KDH 
coalition won a majority in the regional parliament (26 of the 
44 seats). 
 
The Big Losers 
 
¶4. SMER's current third partner in the national coalition, the 
Slovak National Party (SNS), headed by Jan Slota, failed in most 
regions and gained only 9 out of 408 regional slots (of which 6 
were in Slota's home region of Zilina).  In contrast, Vladimir 
Meciar's HzDS won over four times as many seats after teaming up 
with SMER.  KDH also performed poorly, falling from 87 seats in 
the 2005 elections to just 49 in 2009.  The SDKU-KDH coalition 
strategy proved to be as much a failure as the SMER-HzDS 
coalition proved to be a success.  New Hungarian party MOST-HID 
won only two regional parliament slots, while the veteran 
Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) won 40.  The new Freedom and 
Solidarity (SaS) party won just one regional parliamentarian 
slot in Bratislava, but SaS Chairman Sulik claimed victory, as 
SaS surpassed the 5 percent threshold in the national vote, 
which, if replicated in June 2010, would earn the new party 
representation in Parliament. 
 
Roma Vote Buying on the Rise? 
 
¶5. Roma vote buying, particularly in Kosice and Presov, where 
the concentration of the Roma population is highest, but also in 
Banska Bystrica and Zilina, was a disappointing feature of this 
year's regional elections.  SDKU MP Stefan Kuzma and three other 
opposition MPs from Presov filed a complaint with the Central 
Election Commission, stating they "have numerous reports of vote 
buying from Presov County, where often people made no secret of 
being paid for their vote. Rather than policies and programs, 
three to five euros decide who will become the zupan." According 
to unofficial findings of the opposition deputies, election 
turnout in some Roma settlements was 60 percent to 70 percent, 
while the overall turnout was just above twenty percent. 
 
¶6. NDI political program director Zuzana Dzurikova commented 
that vote buying is something that is always a concern in Romani 
communities, but what worries her most is that it appears to be 
getting more sophisticated and organized.  In years past, 
parties would bus Roma to polling stations and buy them sausage 
or vodka to encourage them to vote one way; there was no 
guarantee once the Romani voter went into the booth that he or 
she should actually do it.  Now the parties have developed a 
system by which voters are instructed by their communal leaders, 
in cahoots with corrupt politicians, to submit a completed 
ballot and bring their blank ones back out to the vote buyers in 
exchange for cash. 
 
¶7. Due to suspected voting fraud in the Kosice region, four 
opposition members of the Central Election Board refused to sign 
the final report on the election outcome.  The police have 
started an investigation, though the Vice President of the 
Police, Stanislav Jankovic, says the police view vote buying as 
an "ethical rather than criminal issue."  PM Fico downplayed 
fraud concerns, saying "In every election, whatever the level 
is, in whatever European country, always some incident can be 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000484  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
found...and the one who loses, lays blame. And excuse me, but I 
will not comment on these insults which overwhelm us from the 
side of the opposition representatives, because it is not worth 
it." 
 
Romani Candidate Elected for First Time 
 
¶8. Miroslav Dano, a successful Romani businessman and candidate 
for the Roma Coalition Party (SRK), was elected to the Regional 
Parliament in Presov with 2,491 votes. This is the first time in 
Slovak history that a Romani candidate has been elected to a 
position of this level.  Dano has not been active in politics in 
the past, and little is known about his priorities. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶9. A SMER victory was forecast in most pre-election polls 
(reftel); however, many analysts seem surprised at how 
resounding it was.  Some analysts attribute this to the 
higher-than-expected turnout, which disadvantaged smaller 
parties and independent candidates in favor of larger parties 
and coalitions.  While SDKU Chairman Dzurinda and KDH Chairman 
Figel lamented the vote-buying fraud that they believe cost them 
seats in the eastern regions, they must clearly be thinking that 
they need a better strategy to mobilize voters if they are going 
to keep SMER from marching on next June.  As for SNS and HzDS, 
Fico has clearly shown them he has the power to make or break 
their political future.  End Comment. 
EDDINS