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 neighboring Ukraine, and pro-Western liberals.
Final opinion polls showed Fico’s SMER-SSD (Direction-Slovak Social Democracy) party neck and neck with Progressive Slovakia (PS), 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 is due to end at 10:00 p.m. (2000 GMT), although one polling station will stay open 40 minutes later after a medical emergency briefly suspended voting. Exit polls should come after the last station closes and results within several hours of that.
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 invasion.
