Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
National Populism and Electoral Behaviour Comparison of Presí d entí aI EIectíons iis 2009 ancI ParIíamentary EIectíons jin 2006 ín SoutIhern SIovaEía on tIhe LeveI of Dístrícts The presidential elections in 2009 ended up in an atmosphere that most probably made a vast majority of ethnic Hungarians in southern Slovakia vote according to the same pattern. Long before the elections, SMK-MKP unambiguously endorsed the candidature of Iveta Radičová; some public statements and appearances by Ivan Gašparovič and his supporters further assured ethnic Hungarians that Mr. Gašparovič was indeed not their candidate. As a result, the votes of ethnic Hungarians tipped the balance in all districts of southern Slovakia to the favour of Iveta Radičová, this despite the fact that they constitute a majority in only two of these districts (and three constituencies). By all available estimates, ethnic Hungarians voted for Mrs. Radičová in a ratio that exceeded 90% and even approached 100%. Consequently, we were able to establish with relative precision the voting pattern of Slovak voters living on the ethnically mixed territory. We used a methodology of leaving the votes of ethnic Hungarian voters out of consideration. The total number of votes received by both candidates was adjusted by the coefficient of Slovaks’ representation in each given district based on the data on ethnic make-up of particular districts and municipalities as established by the 2001 population census. The remaining votes were considered the votes cast by Slovak voters. The results are summed up in Table 3. If election results of Ivan Gašparovič were compared to data from other districts and expressed in a cartogram, then the map of Slovakia would look something like this (please see Map 3). Ill
