A total of 25 political parties, movements and coalitions intend to run in the 2020 Slovak General Election as they submitted draft slates to the Interior Ministry before the deadline of midnight on December 1. On Friday, December 6, the State Commission for Elections and Supervising the Financing of Political Parties will meet in order to examine the draft slates and decide whether to register them. It will also draw the numbers under which individual parties will run in the general election.
Out of the major formations with a chance of making it into parliament, only one coalition has been formed - the double coalition of opposition non parliamentary parties Progressive Slovakia and Together. Efforts to create a larger coalition with up to 6 opposition parties failed.
Ethnic Hungarian parties, excluding the currently governing Most-Híd, are running on one slate. The far right People's Party our Slovakia (ĽSNS) took members of four minor parties on its slate, however, did not reach an agreement with the Vlasť party of former Justice Minister and unsuccessful presidential candidate Štefan Harabin.
Along with submitting their draft slates, political parties had to pay an election deposit amounting to €17,000. This will only be returned to parties that gain at least 2% of votes in the election.
The general election in Slovakia is slated for February 29, 2020. The election campaign officially started on November 5. Political parties can spend a maximum of €3 million (including VAT) on their campaigns. Each party must have a transparent bank account. The campaign will end with an election moratorium 48 hours before election day.
In the election, parties need to earn the minimum of 5% of votes to be in the 150-seat, one chamber parliament. The seats are divided proportionally according to the Proportional representation electoral system. A minimum of 76 seats are needed to form a government. The votes of 90 MPs are necessary for adopting a constitutional law.
