{"id":246671,"date":"2020-03-01T05:02:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T10:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246671"},"modified":"2020-03-01T05:02:51","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T10:02:51","slug":"exit-polls-opposition-appears-to-be-winning-slovakia-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/01\/exit-polls-opposition-appears-to-be-winning-slovakia-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit polls: Opposition appears to be winning Slovakia vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Slovaks are voting in parliamentary elections widely expected to unseat the long dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party that governed on an anti-immigration platform. (Pexels Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia \u2014 Two exit polls suggested that Slovakia’s opposition appears to be winning Saturday’s parliamentary election.<\/p>\n

The polls by the Focus and Median.sk agencies showed the conservative Ordinary People party getting over 25% support while the senior ruling leftist Smer-Social Democracy led by former populist Prime Minister Robert Fico would receive between 13.9 and 14.9%.<\/p>\n

The result means Ordinary People would be able to create a majority government with three other centre-right parties and unseat Smer, the country’s long dominant but scandal-tainted party.<\/p>\n

In a further blow for Smer, the polls suggested that Fico’s current coalition partners, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, would not win any seats.<\/p>\n

An extreme far-right party whose members use Nazi salutes and which wants Slovakia out of the European Union and NATO seemed to receive between 6.5% – 8.8% support.<\/p>\n

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below.<\/p>\n

Slovaks are voting in parliamentary elections widely expected to unseat the long dominant but scandal-tainted leftist party that governed on an anti-immigration platform.<\/p>\n

According to the latest polls, a coalition of several centre-right parties is emerging as a favourite to win Saturday’s ballot and form a new government for Slovakia.<\/p>\n

The centre-right Ordinary People, led by Igor Matovic, is the front-runner, followed by Smer-Social Democracy, led by populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico.<\/p>\n

Matovic, 46, has made fighting corruption and attacking Fico the central tenet of his campaign. An anti-corruption drive has been in the party’s program since he established it 10 years ago. He is ahead in opinion polls with some 19%.<\/p>\n

If he wins as predicted, Matovic is the likeliest candidate for prime minister. He is expected to govern with a coalition of the liberal Progressive Slovakia\/Together, the conservative For People established by former President Andrej Kiska, and the pro-business Freedom and Solidarity party.<\/p>\n

Fico’s Smer has been in power for most of the past 14 years. It gained 28.3% in the last elections in 2016 after campaigning on an anti-migrant ticket. But the party was damaged by political turmoil following the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee and is expected to receive around 15%.<\/p>\n

Fico’s current coalition partners, the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, might not win any seats, polls suggest.<\/p>\n

In a worrying development, an extreme far-right party whose members use Nazi salutes and which wants Slovakia out of the European Union and NATO is forecast to strengthen its hold in the 150-seat parliament, to become the third most popular party in the country of just under 5.5 million.<\/p>\n

The far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia won 8% and 14 seats in Parliament in 2016 and this time might get about 10%.<\/p>\n

All other parties have ruled out co-operation with the party that advocates the legacy of the Slovak Nazi puppet WWII state.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia \u2014 Two exit polls suggested that Slovakia’s opposition appears to be winning Saturday’s parliamentary election. The polls by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":209681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246672,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246671\/revisions\/246672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}