BRATISLAVA: Slovaks were voting on Saturday in a parliamentary election closely fought between former leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who wants to end military aid for neighbouring Ukraine, and pro-Western liberals.
Final opinion polls showed the two parties neck and neck, with the winner expected to get the first chance to try to form a government to replace the caretaker administration running the country of 5.5 million since May.
Voting ends at 20.00 GMT. Exit polls are due to be released after polls close, and results will become available within several hours.
A government led by Fico would mean Slovakia joining Hungary in challenging the European Union's consensus on support for Ukraine, just as the bloc looks to keep unity in opposing Russia's attack.
It would also bolster a group of eastern ex-Communist states with governments publicly hostile to liberalism. They also include Poland's ruling nationalist PiS party, which also faces an election next month, though it remains pro-Ukrainian.
A Progressive Slovakia (PS) government would stay the course on foreign policy, maintaining the country's strong backing for Ukraine and following a liberal line within the EU on issues.
"It is now up to the voters," PS leader Michal Simecka, who is also a European Parliament vice-chairman, said after casting his vote in the capital, Bratislava.
"I hope that ... whatever government comes out of this election will continue to support Ukraine," he said.
Fico posted a video on Facebook of him casting his vote accompanied by his mother, saying he hoped "common sense" would triumph in the election "so they don't drag us into adventures, whether its migration or military".
Neither Fico's SMER-SSD (Direction-Slovak Social Democracy) nor the PS is expected to win a majority, meaning the future government is likely to depend on results for over half a dozen smaller parties, from libertarians to far-right extremists.
The moderate-left Hlas (Voice) of Peter Pellegrini, an ex-SMER-SSD member and prime minister in 2018-2020, is seen coming third and may be the kingmaker. He has kept his options open but said this week his party was closer to Fico.
Fico has ridden on dissatisfaction with a bickering centre-right coalition whose government collapsed last year, triggering the election six months early, and concern about a rise in the number of migrants passing through Slovakia en route to Western Europe. — Reuters
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