Presidential elections in Slovakia – evaluation and prospects

After a turbulent period in Slovak domestic politics, the firts round of presidential election was held on 23 March 2024 when none of the candidates obtained more than 50 percent of the votes which – according to Slovak regulation – has to be obtained by a candidate, otherwise a second round has to be held. Ivan Korčok, former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs won this first round with 42.51 percent of the votes. The second-best result was achieved by Peter Pellegrini, the President of the Slovak Parliament and the second-largest government party, Hlas-SD, with 37.02 percent. The second round of elections was held on 6 April and it ended with the victory of Pellegrini who will take over the duties of Head of State from Zuzana Čaputová on 15 June. Pellegrini received 53.12%, while Korčok 46.88% of the votes. Compared to the first round of the elections, in the second round, the voter turnout was almost 10 percent higher (61.14%).