This WebPage was created by Miroslav Sedivy, author of the Geocitizen's Unofficial Guide to Slovak Politics. It was written during the week of 19th - 26th May 1997, using some facts from news and radio, which means, that almost all articles are written as soon as I learnt some new information. It's about the greatest FAUX PAS of the Slovak government in the whole 5-years history of the Slovak republic.
The 3-questions tickets aren't official, because the Central Referendum Committee didn't give any permission to print them. There must be TWO stamps on each referendum ticket. One is printed already with the ticket: it's the Central Referendum Committee's stamp. The stamp on the 4-questions ticket is O.K., but the stamp which is on the 3-questions tickets is illegal, because the Central Referendum Committee didn't give permission to print them. Nobody can change the referendum questions. And if the President declared Referendum with four, questions, there MUST be four questions. These 3-questions tickets are illegal, they aren't valid for referendum. On 23rd April, there are only 3-questions tickets on the districts and they are distributed in the Vote Sites. Several chairmans of local Vote Sites didn't accept three-questions tickets. The whole biggest Slovak district Bratislava-Petrzalka with more than 80,000 voters, has no tickets. The mayor excuses himself to all people who cannot vote, but they have no 4-questions tickets, and the 3-questions tickets are illegal, so they don't distribute them. At 2pm, the major part of Vote Sites in Slovakia are opened to the public. Some Vote Sites are closed, because they have no tickets. At few hours later, at 4pm, according to the radio news, a very few people went to the referendum sites. And major part of them, when only 3-question tickets were offered to them, refused to vote. In one Vote Site, where 6,000 voters are registered, only 10 people came during the first three hours. But when they saw that there are no legal tickets, they refused to vote. Later, also the Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar arrived on his BMW to one Vote Site in the first Bratislava district. He took the 3-questions ticket and voted. There were many journalists waiting for him, but when they asked him, why he voted by an illegal ticket, he told only: vagabonds and left. This reaction was typical to him. However, he seemed very nervous. The President of the Republic came in his fourth Bratislava district Vote Site, but when he saw, that there are only 3-question tickets, he said: As the President, I cannot participate on this crime. I don't vote if there are no legal tickets. More opposite politicians, actors and other known people refused to vote by illegal tickets. There were some strange cases with the people who voted by 3-questions tickets. They reasoned their act as: I want to vote, no matter how many questions there are. Or: I voted already, but I didn't pay attention to the number of questions. And this is true, I've heard these people! Everybody who voted, voted by an illegal ticket. I went to our Vote Site at 8pm. I live in the first Bratislava district, and this district is one of the most opposite to the government. The chairman of our Local Referendum Committee refused 3-questions tickets, so there were NO tickets at all. But in another Vote Site of the first Bratislava district, not far from the our one, where the Prime Minister voted, they had 3-question tickets. ...it would be interesting, but also hazardous to tell to Meciar, that they have no 3-question tickets... They said me there were a few people who wanted to vote by these illegal tickets. However, many people refused to participate on the crime with illegal tickets. The members of the committee stay there until 10pm, always waiting if somebody brings the legal 4-questions tickets. Some people come, ask, and if there aren't legal tickets, they turn back. The situation didn't change Saturday. The Vote Sites are opened since 7am. No one has got legal tickets with four questions, so many people ignored the referendum. On Saturday, at 8am, the Central Referendum Committee had a sitting. Although there were all 8 opposite deputies but not the Minister of the Interior and 7 coalition deputies, the Committee was able to vote (more than one half of members). They decided to accuse the Interior Minister, because he marred the referendum, when he canceled the distribution of legal tickets with four questions. It's 2pm, and the Vote Sites are closed... The biggest fiasco in the Slovakia's history is completed... On Saturday evening, first unofficial results were released. In several districts of Central Slovakia, about 10 - 15% of voters took their part on the referendum. All of them voted by illegal tickets, as there were no legal ones. For illustration, in district Topolcany, from 55,700 voters, about 6300 delivered their tickets, and their answers were as follows: 1.NATO (2500 yes - 3800 no). 2.nuclear weapons (500 - 5200) 3.army bases (700 - 5000). Official results are waited on Sunday morning... they don't have too much votes to count... On Sunday, the opposite parties had a sitting. They refuse any discussion with Meciar's HZDS. Afternoon, there was a press-foyer with Meciar and Krajci. Meciar said that he wants to disscuss with the opposition, but his conditions were uncompromissal. He told also, that the President, the Constitutional Court, the opposition, the mayors, the Central Referendum Committee with its Local Committees, the journalists and maybe everybody is responsible for this fiasco. Only his party HZDS is for NATO! But everybody remembers that HZDS didn't give any TV-shot to the Slovak Television, that his coalition parties ZRS and SNS were against NATO, that the whole opposition together wanted to vote YES to NATO in legal referendum. By the official results, 9.8% of voters participated on the referendum with 3-questions tickets. Of course, they would be more if all districts have got 3-question tickets, as for example the biggest district Bratislava-Petrzalka with more than 80,000 voters had no tickets at all.
If there was the fourth question, much more people would participate and the answer could be clearer: YES to NATO and YES to PRESIDENT. Because almost everybody who wanted direct elections of the President, wanted also to join NATO... and all of them ignored this illegal referendum. By unofficial information, about 70% of Slovak voters are for the direct elections of the President. THE WHOLE REFERENDUM COST 150,000,000 SKK!, it's about 5 million USD! ...regardless of the future consequences in our position in Europe... On Monday, there was a short interview in radio Twist. The journalist asked
the vice-chairman of the Slovak National Council, Augustin Marian Huska
from Meciar's HZDS:
Monday afternoon, the Minister of Foreign Affaires Hamzik resigned to his function. He told that he wanted to be a Minister only to get Slovakia into NATO. "In this situation, it isn't possible. Therefore, there's no reason to stay at this function." This referendum was extremely important to us. Not the questions about NATO, but the question about direct elections of the President. More than half a million of citizens signed a petition (me too) with a question: Do you agree with a referendum about the direct elections of the President of the Republic?. If the coalition part of the Parliament accepted the referendum with another three questions about NATO, it was because they wanted to negotiate the importance of the people's fourth question. I don't think it was important to ask people whether they want to enter into NATO, because it was the main point of the government's program. However, the government makes a lot of steps against NATO. The second and the third question about the nuclear weapons and army bases were added on purpose, because it seems natural to answer NO to these questions, therefore people ignored the referendum. The President made a mistake, maybe, when he declared one referendum about NATO and elections. But nobody knew what will happen a day before the referendum. This referendum had to be my first chance to use my suffrage, as I was 18 one month before. I thought that the referendum is the holiday for everybody, that it is the clearest form of presenting people's opinion. I believed that what people say (the major part of them), the government has to accept it. Until the Friday morning I believed, that everything will be O.K. The government reasoned the fiasco with the referendum, that the Constitutional Court decided, that the Constitution cannot be changed by a referendum. And also, that the President combined two important questions in one, so if somebody wanted to vote only for NATO, he raised the quorum (quorum is the percentage of needed voters - 50%) for the fourth question. As more than 50% of voters have to vote, if the referendum has to be valid, this was dangerous for them. But by the law, if a voter checks YES or NO to any question, he participated on THIS question. If he doesn't answer, it means he doesn't participate. There are TWO boxes by each question: YES and NO. It means if somebody want to join NATO, he checks first three questions (YNN, YYY, YNY,...), and if he doesn't want to decide whether he wants to vote the President, he lets the fourth question void. And his votes raise the quorum for the first three questions, but not for the last one. The government feared of the result. It was sure that many people want to vote their President. And what could it mean for the government? By the current Constitution, the president is voted by 3/5 of the parliament (90 votes). In 1993, for the first elections, 4 candidates were proposed: 1 also from Meciar's HZDS: Roman Kovac. As there were four candidates, no one was chosen. Then there was only one candidate: Michal Kovac also from HZDS. He was the only candidate, so he was chosen and being the first Slovak president, he had to leave HZDS. In a few months, Michal Kovac also began to have different opinions to V.Meciar's. In the beginning, many people were with Meciar (more than 80% popularity in 1991), but then slowly, many of them are against him. In March 1998, Michal Kovac ends his functionality as the President after 5 years. After his abdication, new president must be voted by parliament. More than 3/5 = 90 deputies must vote for the new president. HZDS and his coalition parties have about 80 deputies, the opposition has about 70 deputies. THERE'S NO CHANCE TO VOTE A NEW PRESIDENT BY THE PARLIAMENT BEFORE NEW ELECTIONS!!! So the government takes the major part of president's functions till next elections in second half of 1998. And if this referendum ended as it ended, it was only a dress-rehearsal to the parliamentary elections. The government realized now, what he may do with the nation, and he'll do it again next year, in bigger measure. And what is the real result of this referendum? The worst presentation possible to the World. The government pays (better say: we pay) a lot of money for better presentation of Slovakia to the World, but this crime was something that cannot be undone. Although many foreign people confounded Slovakia with Slovenia, now, they cannot do it even more: SLOVAKIA IS THAT "REFERENDUM" COUNTRY! And the weekend 23rd - 24th May 1997 was the last day of democracy in this small Central-European country. This act of the government stopped our way to Europe. As this WebPage was written really during the referendum, begun on Friday
23rd and finished on Monday 26th. Certainly, there will be many consequences
of this referendum, and I want to inform you about the current situation
in Slovakia. Please, if you have anything to tell me about this theme, feel
free to contact me.
No matter what country you are from, no matter whether you knew about it
before, please write your personal opinions, reactions in your country,
your experiences with it and your questions.
THANK YOU! Miroslav Sedivy (Bratislava, Slovakia) | |||||||||||||||