BRATISLAVA, January 20 (WEBNOVINY) – Of all Slovak citizens living abroad and not having permanent residence in Slovakia, only 633 requested the possibility to vote by mail in March 10 early elections. People without permanent residence have until Friday, January 21 to request a permit to vote by mail at the Bratislava-Petrzalka Municipal Council as the district of Petrzalka has a special election precinct for Slovak citizens with permanent residence in other countries. As Petrzalka District Council’s Denisa Paulenova informed, it is important that requests on voting by mail are delivered until Friday or, if they’re sent via e-mail, until Friday midnight. Requests delivered later will not be accepted. The final number will be therefore known only on Monday.
Paulenova further informed that requests have to contain a declaration of honor stating that the voter does not have permanent residence in the Slovak Republic, a copy of their passport or a copy of citizenship certificate. In the case of requests sent by e-mail, these have to include scans of relevant documents.
Most of the delivered requests came from the Czech Republic, the United States, Canada and from various European countries. Voters from more distant or exotic counties, including Australia, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa or Lebanon, showed interest in the elections, too, Paulenova added.
In 2006, when voting by mail was made possible for the first time, Petrzalka Municipal Council registered 641 requests for voting via post; their number dropped to 570 in 2010. Altogether 3,427 voters voted via post in the 2006 election and 5,861 in 2010, casting 0.22 percent of all votes. The problem remains that it is impossible to vote for voters who don’t know they’ll be abroad on the day of the election before the deadline for submitting requests for voting via post. The early election will take place on March 10, 2012 with 26 political parties running.
SITA