Prime Minister Igor Matovič (OLaNO) stated on Monday that the public will be able to evaluate the candidates his party has selected to head district offices via a special website. OLaNO has already drawn up a slate of 70 candidates. "I want to ask people for help. I want them to visit prednostovia.sk, where they can find all the candidates for district office heads and report any of their moral missteps from the past ... of which they may have knowledge, so that we can avoid possible problems with them," said Matovič, calling it a "public screening". The public will be able to comment on the candidates on the website until July 10. The Prime Minister claims that the candidates will be confronted with what the public reveals about them, and, if they fail to explain the information, the Government won't appoint them. At the same time, the premier stated that if any future district head commits an error, he'll issue the order to have them dismissed.The list of candidates was put together by the Olano party caucus and party members in cooperation with regional associations and civil society activists.
The procedure has triggered criticism both from junior coalition member For the People Party as well as from political analysts and transparency watchdogs who have questioned the criteria based on which the selection was made. The Stop Corruption Foundation has been criticizing the fact that instead of organizing a transparent public selection procedure, the largest party of the governing coalition has been choosing the heads of the district offices. Political commentators such as Ján Baránek would like to have more information about the professional qualifications of the candidates to run such offices.
