Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Kálmán Petőcz: National Populism and Electoral Behaviour
Kálmán Petőcz 158 Source: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic; author's own calculations. Voting patterns of ethnic Hungarians changed relatively profoundly in 2002. Graph 8 suggests that in 2002 as well as in 2006, almost 100% of the country’s ethnic Hungarians most probably voted for SMK-MKP. This was probably caused by several factors. Most importantly, SMK-MKP had become an established, stable and respected party since 1998. Previous animosities between former MPP-MOS, MKDM-MKDH and Coexistence members had disappeared (at least on the outside) or had been overcome by everyday executive activity in various government and self-governance organs, institutions and authorities. Secondly, Slovak political subjects had largely abandoned the ethnic dimension of their political programs, which negatively affected their willingness to nominate ethnic Hungarians to party posts or candidates’ lists. Last but not least, one should not forget about the factor of increased turn-out of ethnic Hungarian voters. The latter was also caused by a number of factors: first, anti-Hungarian campaign of the SNS mobilized many ethnic Hungarian voters, particularly in 2006; second, the average age of Slovakia’s ethnic Hungarians is higher than that of Slovaks and if past election statistics justify any hard-andfast conclusion it is that older voters are more disciplined than younger Graph 8 Willingness of ethnic Hungarian voters to vote for SMK-MKP (a deviation between the share of ethnic Hungarians and SMK-MKP election results in %)
