In postal elections from abroad, the secrecy and directness of voting is not guaranteed, so they can be manipulated. For this reason, the government coalition wants to change the law so that elections are also held abroad in the classic form, which is safer. Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Tibor Gašpar (Smer-SD) said this on TASR TV.
In classic voting in a polling station behind a curtain, the voter is alone, no one can see who he voted for, and he personally casts his vote in the ballot box in front of the electoral commission. “It follows that you vote directly because it’s you. It’s not a postal ticket sent for your friend.” said Gašpar.
According to Gašpar, since it is not guaranteed that you are the only person participating in a postal election, and that you vote directly, one person abroad can organize the election of the entire community. “He knows how to organize the fact that he will vote for everyone. From a technical point of view, he will do it, as if everyone sent the postcards separately, but it is a manifestation of the will of one person.” said Gaspar.
According to Gašpar, the very results of the postal vote in 2023 also raise the suspicion that in Slovakia the election may already have been influenced by mail abroadwhich were diametrically different from the overall election results in Slovakia.
In the parliamentary elections in 2023, Smer-SD won overall with the support of 22.94 percent of votes ahead of Progressive Slovakia (17.96 percent), Hlasom-SD (14.7 percent), OĽaNO and friends (8.89 percent), KDH (6.82 percent), SaS (6.32 percent) and SNS (5.62 percent). The Republic movement, with 4.75 percent support, did not make it to parliament.
In the elections, Slovaks from abroad won almost 60,000 valid votes Progressive Slovakia 61.7 percentfinished in second place SaS with the support of 10.8 percent of the votes. He was only third Smer-SD with the support of 6.1 percent of voters and the other parties would not get into the parliament at all according to this vote.
“The sample of people who live abroad and who can vote should at least partially correspond to the electorate in Slovakia,” responds Gašpar. He adds that there are many ways to influence the election campaign in Slovakia abroad. “I just want us to make them transparent. To observe the financial quotas that are intended for the election campaign by the entities. So that foreign elements that put money into it and influence it do not enter into it,” he claims.
In the European Union, there are states that allow voting from abroad, but also those where voting from abroad is not possible. In Slovakia, according to Gašpar, we should keep the option of voting from abroad and possibly expand it further, so that it is possible to vote from abroad in presidential elections as well. However, it should no longer be done by post, but directly in polling stations set up in foreign embassies. “We do not want to cancel the election from abroad. We want to adjust the possibility to vote as provided for in the Slovak constitution,” said Gaspar.
A citizen who wants to vote from abroad would register within a set period of time, and would then be assigned a voting precinct at an embassy or consular office. “And he can vote like in Slovakia. They check your identity, you get a ballot, you go behind the poll and vote,” he added. According to him, such voting will be direct and secret. “So we also fulfill what the constitution required and what we kind of tolerated that was not followed during the election from abroad,” concluded Gašpar.
