At stake in this election:

• 150 seats in the National Council of the Slovak Republic (Narodna Rada Slovenskej Republiky)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Ivan GASPAROVIC
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Iveta RADICOVA
• Assembly: Slovakia has a unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic (Narodna Rada Slovenskej Republiky) with 150 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.*
• The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
• In the National Council of the Slovak Republic (Narodna Rada Slovenskej Republiky) 150 members are elected through a flexible-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

* Candidates for the presidency must be nominated by at least 15 members of parliament or through a petition of at least 15,000 voters.

*** Electors are given a separate ballot for each party, which they take into the voting booth. Each party ranks its candidates from one to the total number of candidates it is running. Electors cast one vote for their preferred party. In addition, they may cast up to four preferential votes on the ballot. Electors then place the ballot of their preferred party into an envelope, discarding the other ballots into a separate bin. Seat order is determined by the predetermined order of candidates on the party lists, updated by the count of preferential votes cast. There is a 5% threshold which every party must obtain, even if part of a larger coalition.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Direction – Social Democracy / Smer – sociálna demokracia (Smer)
  • Leader: Robert FICO
  • Seats won in this election: 83
  • Seats won in last election: 62
• Party: Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party / Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia – Demokratická stran (SDKÚ-DS)
  • Leader: Mikuláš DZURINDA
  • Seats won in this election: 11
  • Seats won in last election: 28
• Alliance: Freedom and Solidarity / Sloboda a Solidarita (SaS)
  • Leader: Richard SULIK
  • Seats won in this election: 11
  • Seats won in last election: 21
• Party: Christian Democratic Movement / Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie (KDH)
  • Leader: Ján FIGEL
  • Seats won in this election: 16
  • Seats won in last election: 15
• Alliance: Bridge / Most–Híd
  • Leader: Béla BUGAR
  • Seats won in this election: 13
  • Seats won in last election: 10
• Party: Slovak National Party / Slovenská národná strana (SNS)
  • Leader: Ján SLOTA
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 9
• Party: Ordinary People and Independent Personalities / Obyčajní Ľudia a nezávislé osobnost (OĽaNO)
  • Leader: Igor MATOVIC
  • Seats won in this election: 16
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 5,407,579 (2012)
• Registered Voters: 4,392,451 (March 2012)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 2,786,238 (2012)

·         Is Slovakia a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Slovakia ratified CEDAW: Yes, succession (28 May 1993)

·         Gender Quota: No (there are political parties that have voluntary gender quotas)

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 24 (following the 2012 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 35 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Slovakia a signatory to CRPD: Yes (26 September 2007)

·         Has Slovakia ratified CRPD: Yes (26 May 2010)

·         Population with a disability: 811,136 (est.)