Almost 1.7 million voters will decide the composition of the country’s 90-member parliament in Slovenia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. The polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m., TASR informs, according to a report by the STA agency.
Voters will be able to cast their vote until 19:00 in the evening, and the first preliminary results will probably start arriving immediately after the polling stations close; two TV stations will publish the first exit polls immediately after the end of the voting.
A total of 4.8 percent of voters cast their vote early, from Tuesday to Thursday, which is significantly less than 7.7 percent in the elections four years ago, writes STA. The others will vote in more than 3,100 polling stations throughout the country and at diplomatic missions abroad. Just over 1,100 voters registered at 29 diplomatic missions, while another 1,700 registered to vote by mail from abroad.
Polls indicated a tight race
Voters will choose from 18 candidate lists, with some of the smaller political parties undoubtedly playing a role in forming the future government coalition. The latest public opinion polls show that the parliamentary elections will be a close fight between the ruling center-left Freedom Movement (GS) and the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), but especially between their leaders Robert Golob (GS) and Janez Janša (SDS).
Based on the results of the latest public opinion polls, 24.4 percent of voters would vote for GS, while 21 percent of respondents would support SDS. According to the polls, the Social Democrats (SD) would finish in third place with 6.9 percent, followed by Anže Logar’s Democrats with 6.4 percent. The joint candidate list of New Slovenia (NSi), the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) and Fokus Marko Lotrič would be supported by 6.4 percent of respondents, and the joint candidate of the Left and the Green Party Vesna would appeal to 6.3 percent of respondents. The Pravda movement (Resni.ca) would also enter parliament with a gain of four percent.
A few days before the election, more than ten percent of potential voters were still undecided.
The election campaign in recent weeks was marked by suspicion of foreign interference in the parliamentary elections. SDS and the Israeli private intelligence and consulting firm Black Cube are mentioned in this connection. The Black Cube representative whom Janša met in Slovenia is Giora Ejland, who previously served as the chairman of the Israeli National Security Council.
