Slovakia’s liberal PS party edges ahead before Sept 30 election – AKO poll
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Sept 27 (Reuters) – The Slovak liberal party Progresivne Slovensko edged marginally ahead of the SMER-SSD of former prime minister Robert Fico in the final poll from AKO agency before a Sept. 30 election, highlighting a tight race.
The poll, published on Wednesday and carried out for TV JOJ, put Progresivne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia – PS) ahead of all parties at 18.0% support. SMER-SSD, which has seen its lead dissipate in the past month, polled at 17.7%, dropping 1.7 percentage points from mid-September.
The AKO poll was conducted among 1,000 participants between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26.
It showed the two leading parties each winning 30 seats in the 150-member parliament, both well short of a majority and needing to count on coalition partners to govern. However, the coalition-building path was highly unclear, with the third-leading party HLAS still not committed to any other party and several parties around thresholds for winning seats.
The election is coming early after a centre-right coalition government fell apart last year and a caretaker administration took over in May.
SMER-SSD, which still lead in two other polls published in the past day, is seeking to return after a three-year hiatus. It is led by three-time prime minister Fico, who is pledging to defend national interests and end military support for Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion.
The pro-western Progressive Slovakia party’s leader Michal Simecka has warned such a policy reversal would mean a turn closer to Russia and a threat of isolation for Slovakia.
SMER-SSD
HLAS
Progresivne Slovensko
SaS
OLANO-led coalition
Republika
KDH
SME RODINA
SNS
DEMOKRATI
27-Sep-23
17.7
15.0
18.0
7.3
9.4
5.4
6.1
5.1
6.0
4.3
14-Sep-23
19.4
15.1
18.2
7.4
7.0
5.2
6.0
5.3
6.0
3.5
17-Aug-23
19.2
15.0
17.8
6.6
7.2
6.3
6.2
5.7
5.9
2.9
1-Aug-23
19.9
15.2
16.4
6.6
6.7
6.7
6.0
6.1
5.8
2.2
Jul-23
18.1
16.5
15.4
7.6
7.2
6.8
5.9
6.2
5.1
2.2
Jun-23
19.0
17.2
14.4
7.8
7.1
7.0
6.5
6.2
4.7
2.8
May-23
18.0
16.5
14.3
8.3
7.4
6.9
6.6
5.6
4.4
3.4
Apr-23
17.9
16.3
14.1
8.3
5.8
6.6
6.4
7.1
4.3
4.1
Mar-23
17.6
16.1
15.1
8.1
5.0
6.8
6.7
6.8
4.2
4.9
Feb-23
16.3
18.9
13.7
7.9
7.3
6.6
6.9
7.1
4.0
Jan-23
15.9
17.6
13.2
9.1
8.7
7.3
6.2
6.8
4.1
Dec-22
16.1
20.2
11.8
9.9
8.0
6.6
5.5
7.7
4.0
Nov-22
16.0
19.5
11.5
10.8
7.5
6.3
6.1
6.9
4.2
Oct-22
16.1
19.1
11.2
11.5
8.1
6.6
5.8
7.7
4.1
Sep-22
15.0
19.3
10.0
12.9
7.9
5.2
6.2
7.6
4.2
NOTE: threshold for parties to win seats is 5% and 7% for coalitions
Party descriptions:
* SMER-SSD- Direction-Slovak Social Democracy (leftist party of three-time prime minister Robert Fico)
* HLAS- Voice (leftist party of former prime minister Peter Pellegrini who split from SMER)
