The vote is invalid, the turnout reached 27.25 percent
January 22, 2023
The referendum on changing the constitution, which was supposed to ensure the possibility of early elections, is invalid. As Ladislav Orosz, chairman of the State Commission for Elections and Control of Financing of Political Parties, confirmed at today’s press conference, 27.25 percent of eligible voters, i.e. 1,193,198 people, took part in the voting. However, the participation of more than 50 percent of the voters was necessary for success. According to Orosz, there were a total of 3,184,367 eligible voters.
According to the results of the referendum, 97.51 percent of the participants voted for the amendment of the constitution. On the contrary, 1.54 percent were once morest. The remaining 0.93 votes were invalid. “The referendum took place in accordance with the law,” stated Orosz. At the same time, he said that the ninth nationwide referendum was significantly different from the previous ones. According to the ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic from 2021, the result of the referendum is an immediately binding decision of the citizens, which has the legal force of a constitutional law. “With this in mind, citizens had the opportunity to express their position,” added Orosz.
According to the head of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, Petr Peťek, the highest turnout in the referendum was in the districts of Kysucké nové mesto, Topoľčany, Turčianske Teplice, Púchov and Považská Bystrica. “In these it was more than 40 percent,” he said. Conversely, the lowest turnout was in the districts of Dunajská Streda (11.3 percent), Komárno (15.6 percent) and Bratislava I (15.9 percent). As for lower territorial units, in the Košice Luník IX district, according to Peťek, participation reached 0.1 percent. “Only seven citizens participated out of a total of 4,776,” said Peťko. In the village of Lomnička in the district of Stará Ľubovňa, 19 voters took part in the referendum, which represents one percent. Peťko added that in 288 municipalities, all votes were cast for the answer “Yes”, that is, for changing the constitution.
Vice President of the Slovak Police Force, Damián Imre, assessed the course of the referendum as peaceful. “In total, we recorded two violations that we are clarifying,” he said.