The referendum on the withdrawal of lifetime payments for Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico failed due to low turnout, which amounted to 16.13%, the head of the state election Commission Eduard Burda said.
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More than 4.3 million people have the right to vote in Slovakia, and voting was held at 5,545 polling stations on Saturday. In order for the referendum to be declared valid, the turnout had to exceed 50%.
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“We can state that the turnout did not reach the required 50%,” Burda said at a press conference on Sunday, adding that the turnout was 16.13%.
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Announcing the official results, he added that the majority of those who voted in the referendum answered in the affirmative to the questions they were asked, but the turnout was insufficient for the results to be legally binding.
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The citizens of the republic had to answer two questions: “Do you agree with the abolition of the so-called life annuity, for example, for Robert Fico?” and “Do you agree that the special Prosecutor’s office and the national crime agency should be restored?”
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The referendum was initiated by the extra-parliamentary Demokrati party (“Democrats”), since amendments came into force in Slovakia in July 2024, according to which former prime ministers who held office for at least two terms are entitled to a monthly lifetime payment in the amount of a deputy’s salary, which currently amounts to more than 4 thousand euros. Only Fico, who heads the Slovak government for the third time, meets these criteria in the republic.
