Politics

Slovenia elects new parliament in tight 21-party race

Zagreb, Apr 24 (EFE).- Some 1.7 million Slovenians are eligible to vote in parliamentary elections Sunday to elect the 90 lawmakers that will comprise the country’s national legislature.

The 90 candidates include 88 from 21 parties and two representatives of the Hungarian and Italian minorities.

Over 3,000 polling stations opened at 7 am on Sunday and will close at 7 pm, after which the State Election Commission will begin to publish the first unofficial results on its website.

Full unofficial results are expected late Sunday and the final, official ones will be revealed by May 10.

Polls predict a very close race between Prime Minister Janez Jansa’s conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and Robert Golob’s liberal and green Freedom Movement (GS).

Jansa has served three terms as prime minister (2004-2008, 2012-2013 and 2020-2022) while Golob was Secretary of State for Energy between 1999-2000 and head of the state-owned electricity group GEN-I for 16 years, a position he stepped down from last year.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor announced that he would not necessarily ask the party that gets the most votes to form the new government but the one that manages to secure the support of at least 46 lawmakers.

The next prime minister will, therefore, be decided by small parties that succeed in crossing the 4 percent electoral threshold.

The GS seems more likely to form a coalition with the backing of the fragmented center-left spectrum, according to polls.

The new parliament must be formed within 20 days of the elections, probably on May 13 according to media reports, and the country’s president must propose the future prime minister within 30 days, according to the constitution. EFE

vb/pd/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button