2009 European Parliament election in Slovakia


The European Parliament election of 2009 in Slovakia was the election of the delegation from Slovakia to the European Parliament in 2009.
The turnout, although increased compared to the previous election, was 19.63%, the lowest of any nation involved in the election.

Results

Division of seats

The system of dividing seats to the different lists is somewhat different in Slovakia, compared to some other countries. Firstly the election authorities count the total number of valid votes for parties who have gained more than 5% of the total. In this case there were 709004 such votes. This number is divided by 14 to create the RVC or quota, in this case 50643. Parties are assigned one seat for the number of times they fill the quota. At this initial stage 5 seats were awarded to SMER, 2 to SDKU, 1 to SMK, 1 to KDH and 1 to HZDS leaving 3 seats still unfilled.
In Slovakia's system of proportional representation, the parties needing the fewest votes to get to their next quota are given the remaining seats. In this case those seats went to SMK, KDH and SNS. This is described in more detail at https://web.archive.org/web/20091119032933/http://www.volbysr.sk/volbyep2009/sr/tab4_en.html
In the D'Hondt method of proportional representation, the quota is progressively reduced until it reaches a number at which the correct number of candidates is elected. If this system had been applied in Slovakia, it would have resulted in the quota being reduced to 45960, with the remaining 3 seats going to SDKU, SMK and SNS.

Awarding of seats to candidates

Each voter who voted for a party was also allowed to select two candidates from that party. The seats were awarded to candidates in order of the number of preference votes they received, provided that they received preferences from at least 10 percent of all the voters who chose the particular party.

Direction – Social Democracy (SMER)

List RankingNameValid Preferential Votes
1Boris Zala102940
2Vladimír Maňka42885
3Monika Flašíková – Beňová107097
4Monika Smolková15830
5Katarína Neveďalová4378
6Alexander Kurtanský5221
7Peter Hanulík10202
8Gabriela Kečkéšová3838
9Peter Markovič4793
10Jozef Štrba5964
11Vladislav Petráš1905
12Svetlana Pavlovičová12095
13Milan Magát3241

Monika Flašíková – Beňová, Boris Zala and Vladimír Maňka were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of SMER's voters. The remaining seats were awarded on the basis of the party list ordering, the fourth seat going to Monika Smolková, and the fifth seat going to Katarína Neveďalová.

Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ-DS)

List RankingNameValid Preferential Votes
1Eduard Kukan80244
2Peter Šťastný41847
3Milan Gaľa11613
4Pavol Kubovič3955
5Jarmila Tkáčová5250
6Zita Pleštinská13386
7Juraj Šváč3098
8Marián Török2829
9Júlia Hurná2354
10Eugen Szép855
11Alexander Slafkovský4411
12Štefan Mikula1534

Eduard Kukan and Peter Šťastný were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SDKU's voters.

Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK)

List RankingNameValid Preferential Votes
1Edit Bauer39721
2Alajos Mészáros20652
3Attila Lancz5358
4Sándor Albert12380
5Szabolcs Hodosy11139
6Zoltán Bara6398
7Gábor Klenovics2297
8Zsuzsanna Andrássy4863
9Pál Banai Tóth3674
10Béla Keszegh7746
11Csaba Cúth4581
12Július Slovák2918
13Gergely Agócs3021

Edit Bauer and Alajos Mészáros were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SMK's voters.

Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)

List RankingNameValid Preferential Votes
1Martin Fronc15861
2Ján Hudacký17730
3Anna Záborská43356
4Miroslav Mikolášik29764
5Ján Vančo2486
6Peter Lenč1087
7Renáta Ocilková2078
8Pavol Kossey3655
9Martin Hladký711
10Martin Krajčovič888
11Martin Kalafut600
12Jozef Bobík2100
13Ján Morovič1288

Anna Záborská and Miroslav Mikolášik were awarded seats they had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the KDH's voters.

People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (ĽS-HZDS)

List RankingNameValid Preferential Votes
1Sergej Kozlík41 990
2Peter Baco21226
3Irena Belohorská22948
4Ivana Kapráliková2147
5Diana Štrofová1950
6Ján Kovarčík1711
7Jaroslav Jaduš1399
8Jaroslav Ďaďo2952
9Pavol Krištof1150
10Beáta Sániová955
11Jana Kandráčová1093
12Igor Liška893
13Ladislav Kokoška851

Sergej Kozlík was awarded the seat as he had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of HZDS's voters.

Slovak National Party (SNS)

Jaroslav Paška was awarded the one SNS seat, as he had the most personal preference votes and had received those votes from at least 10 percent of the SNS's electors.

The overall effect of preference voting and the 10% rule

Of the 13 candidate elected, 11 were elected due to the number of personal preference votes they were given, and 2 were elected due to their positions on the party lists.
The 11 candidates elected due to personal preferences included 3 whose list positions did not in themselves justify a seat so could be said to have been elected solely by preferential voting. The remaining 8 candidates all would have been elected anyway if there was no preference voting in the system and the party list ordering had been used alone. It is important to note however, that these 8 people would not have been elected if their personal voters had chosen other candidates, so they were not in any way guaranteed seats as a result of their list positions.
The two candidates elected due to their positions on the party lists were from SMER. One would also have been elected due to her personal preferences if the 10 percent rule had not been in operation but the other was elected solely as a result of her position on the party list.