We talk about it on the streets, in the cafés, at schools, in internet discussions. We analyse, criticise, praise, ask, explain, compare, argue. We realise the importance of the election and of every single vote. And we can’t wait to see the results.
No, I’m not talking about European Parliament election; I’m talking about direct presidential election which is going to be held on Saturday, March 21, 2009 (first round; second round, if necessary, on April 4, 2009). We will have the opportunity to choose one of seven candidates (4 men, one of them our current president, and 3 women) who have quite different political orientations, political pasts, and opinions.
The year 2009 is a year of great importance for Slovaks: the adoption of Euro, all the elections… Yeah, all of them—presidential election in March/April, European Parliament election on June 6, 2009, and regional elections in November 2009. Quite a lot for a common Slovak (as our common low turnouts suggest)… And as it seems now the presidential election will probably need both rounds, I don’t suppose most of Slovaks to be very eager to vote in June for the third time in such a short period—they would be too “tired” of voting… (Maybe they will have relaxed by November though…)
Even if we made ourselves “famous” for our low European Parliament election turnout again (as we did in 2004, two months after our presidential elections as well, and even less than two months after joining EU, with approx. 17 %), I wouldn’t feel like we (or most of us) don’t care about EU and international relations at all: we just transformed our views and hopes into voting for the “right” president with the “right” views on European issues. With any luck he/she won’t disappoint us.
(11 votes, average: 3.45 out of 5)
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