SLOVAKIA
Population
Total population in Slovakia is 5,435,343 by 1st January 2017. 3.43% of the population is foreign born (Eurostat). The median age of Slovakians is 37.87 which is less than the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary election was held in March 2016. The prominent parties, vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
Direction -- Social Democracy |
28.28 |
Social democracy |
Freedom and Solidarity |
12.1 |
Liberal |
Ordinary People and Independent |
11.03 |
Conservative |
Slovak National Party |
8.64 |
Right-wing |
People's Party Our Slovakia |
8.04 |
Right-wing |
We are family -- Boris Kollar |
6.63 |
Right-wing |
Most-Hid |
6.5 |
Conservative |
Network |
5.61 |
Conservative |
Christian Democratic Movement |
4.94 |
Christian democracy |
Hungarian Coalition |
4.05 |
Conservative |
Electoral System
The system used in Slovakia is Open List PR using the Hagenbach-Bischoff allocation system in which parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get distributed to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives (Wikipedia). The voter turnout in 2016 election was 59.82% (idea.int).
Quality of Democracy
Slovakia is a parliamentary democracy. Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is most free and 7 is least free. According to Transparency International, Slovakia is ranked 54th least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 50 out of 100.
Gender Equality
20% of the parliamentarians are women currently while there is no legislated quota for women candidates. (idea.int).