Anti-Corruption Party Tops Vote in Slovakia Election

In the first parliamentary election since the murder two years ago of journalist Jan Kuciak, the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLANO) party took almost 25 per cent of the vote, compared with 18.5 per cent for SMER-SD.

It was SMER-SD's first loss in a general election since 2006 and its worst showing at the ballot box since 2002.

OLANO leader Igor Matovic, a media-savvy millionaire who has promised to be tough on corruption in a country known for the entrenchment of oligarchs in politics, will now have first dibs on forming a government if he can form a coalition with splintered opposition parties.

"We take the result as a request from people who want us to clean up Slovakia," Reuters quoted Matovic as saying after votes were counted. "To make Slovakia a just country, where the law applies to everybody regardless if he is rich or poor." 

The conservative We Are Family party came third with just over eight per cent of the vote, followed by the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) and the progressive PS/SPOLU alliance.

Narrowly making it over the minimum five-per cent threshold to enter parliament were the liberal Freedom and Solidarity party and the liberal For the People party of former President Andjej Kiska.

For the first time in 25 years, parties representing Slovakia's large ethnic Hungarian minority did not make it into parliament.

Analysts say OLANO's victory reflects public anger in the wake of investigations into Kuciak's murder that have shown alleged ties between the businessman accused of ordering the killing and senior members of the police, judiciary and government.

The murder just over two years ago prompted mass street protests, forced former Prime Minister Robert Fico to resign...