Voters could receive a reward of €500 for participating in this year's parliamentary election, OLaNO leader Igor Matovic has proposed in an amendment to the law on the conditions for the exercise of the right to vote.
"Legislation is proposed, which introduces the right to a reward for participating in the election for a voter who can be proven to have cast a ballot in the parliamentary election, in the amount of €500," reads the report on the proposal.
According to the draft, remuneration for participation in the election would be paid only for participating in the parliamentary election, which will be held first after the law comes into force, namely on September 30, 2023. Matovic proposes that the new legislation take effect from June 1.
At a press conference, Matovic justified the proposal by saying that he is afraid of the historically lowest turnout in the next election. According to him, democratic voters will stay disappointed at home. He fears that parties such as Smer-SD, Hlas-SD or Republic will gain a constitutional majority. He wants to prevent this by financially motivating people to vote and increase the turnout.
"We're facing a scenario that Slovakia could take the path out of the EU and NATO, towards our Russian Big Brother," stated Matovic, adding that the next parliamentary election will be a critical vote, so the highest possible turnout is needed.
According to him, political negotiations on support for the proposal have only just begun. OLANO doesn't expect a higher turnout from the proposal, it just wants people to vote. The OLANO leader denied that this is electoral corruption. According to him, this occurs when someone is offered a reward for voting or not voting in a certain way or not voting at all. "We want to achieve maximum voter turnout," he stressed.
"In the case of the expected turnout of approximately 3 million people, the state's costs for the reward would reach about €1.5 billion," said Matovic in the explanatory report to the draft. He sees it as a motivating, fair reward and a return on investment. "It's in line with good management," he said, justifying it by saying that if Smer-SD and extremists come to power, they would "steal" more. "Of course, this is not a negligible amount. On the other hand, compared to the €30 billion that, according to various estimates, the people of Robert Fico and Peter Pellegrini were supposed to have deprived Slovakia of during the 12 years of their rule, this is only about 5 percent of their loot," he wrote in the explanatory report.
According to Branislav Groehling, vice chair of SaS, the proposal to give a €500 reward for participation in the September general election is the height of populism and corruption; Matovic can forget about SaS support. "We all see that it's clear election corruption, he tries to convince us that it is not so," he pointed out, adding that Matovic should no longer submit any proposals. According to Groehling, the OLANO leader confirms every day that it's impossible to govern with him.
Hlas-SD chairman Peter Pellegrini criticized the proposal. “To offer someone €500 just to participate in the election is nonsense that I haven't heard of in any country in the world," he said in a statement issued by his spokeswoman. (TASR)
