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Concurrent Regional and Local Elections in Slovakia

Dovoľujeme si pozvať Vás na najbližší ústavný seminár Sociologického ústavu SAV.

V stredu 14.1. o 13.30 Jozef Zagrapan (Sociologický ústav SAV, v. v. i.) prednesie príspevok

"Concurrent Regional and Local Elections in Slovakia".

Seminár bude v miestnosti 94 v anglickom jazyku.

We invite you for a research seminar of the Institute for Sociology of Slovak Academy of Sciences.

On Wednesday, 14th January at 13.30, Jozef Zagrapan (Sociologický ústav SAV, v. v. i.) will present paper "Concurrent Regional and Local Elections in Slovakia".

The seminar will be in English and will take place in the room 94.

In 2022, for the first time, Slovakia held regional and local elections simultaneously. On the same day, voters elected regional governors, regional councils, mayors, and local assemblies. Additionally, in Bratislava and Košice, they also chose city-district mayors and councillors. This arrangement was unusual even in the broader European context, where cases of two concurrent second-order elections using the same electoral systems remain rare. The reform’s main objective was to increase turnout in regional elections, which traditionally suffer from low participation. The goal was achieved: turnout increased without negatively affecting participation in the local contests. However, the change also brought about unexpected and unintended consequences. The increased number of electoral arenas created additional administrative demands for municipalities, required political parties and candidates to adjust their campaign strategies, and made the decision-making process more complex for voters who were faced with multiple ballots and electoral choices. This presentation will introduce selected insights about the elections and voting behaviour drawn from the VEGA 2/0115/23 project “Elections to the Bodies of Communal Self-Government in Slovakia.”