Slovaks vote in presidential polls and referendum on early elections
AFP, April, 2004
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BRATISLAVA (AFP) — Slovaks cast their votes in a presidential election as well as a referendum on calling early elections to oust the government, which has pursued a painful economic reform program ahead of joining the EU.
Although there are 11 candidates on the ballot, the presidential election is widely expected to be a two-horse race between Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, 64, and controversial 61-year-old former prime minister Vladimir Meciar.
Meciar, who led Slovakia to independence in 1993, had rocky relations with the European Union and NATO when he was prime minister from 1994-1998, as Western leaders considered him too authoritarian and felt government privatizations were not transparent enough.
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While he now professes to be in favor of Slovakia's European integration as the country nears joining the EU on May 1, he threatened in his failed 2002 reelection bid to keep his central European nation out of ...
