BRATISLAVA — An alliance of opposition parties is set to win a stunning victory in Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Slovakia.
Exit polls credit five parties calling themselves the “democratic opposition” with more than 50 percent of the vote which, if confirmed by the vote count, would give the alliance a large majority in the country’s 150-seat parliament.
The result looks set to end a decade-long hold on power by the left-wing populist Smer party led by Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini and party chairman Robert Fico.
Not only has the opposition gained control of parliament but the leading party, the center-right Ordinary People party led by Igor Matovič, outpolled Smer by more than 10 percentage points.
The media-savvy Matovič, 46, now seems poised to become Slovakia’s next prime minister.
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The polls indicate only the second time in 14 years that Smer has failed to garner the most votes in an election. That follows last year’s European Parliament vote, when the liberal Progressive Slovakia-SPOLU coalition easily beat Smer into second place.
While the indicated margin of victory is a surprise, a win for Matovič’s party was not wholly unexpected. Ordinary People gained steadily in the polls as the campaign wore on and a final poll, taken days before the election, showed it surging ahead of Smer.
The ruling party has steadily lost support after the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová. The killings sparked nationwide protests, which forced then-prime minister Fico to resign and led to last year’s election of anti-corruption activist Zuzana Čaputová as president.