President of Slovakia

President of the Slovak Republic;
	; Presidential Standard;
	Incumbent; Ivan Gašparovič; since 15 June 2004
Residence	Grassalkovich Palace
Term length	Five years, renewable once
Inaugural holder	Michal Kováč
Formation	1 January 1993

The President of Slovakia is the head of state of Slovakia. The President is directly elected by the people for five years, and can be elected for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute discretion. The President's official residence is Grassalkovich Palace in Bratislava.

History of the office

The office was established by the Constitution of Slovakia on 1 January 1993 when Slovakia permanently split from Czechoslovakia and became independent. However, the office was vacant until 2nd of March 1993 when the first President Michal Kováč was elected by the National Council of Slovak Republic. However, in 1998 due to then political situation the National Council was unable to elect new President for another term. The result was that for half a year the position became vacant. The duties and powers of the office were devolved upon the then Prime Minister and Speaker of the National Council. In order to come to a solution the constitution was changed in so that the President would be elected in national Presidential election. Presidential elections have been held in 1999, 2004 and 2009.

The current president is Ivan Gašparovič, who took office on 15 June 2004.

Role and Powers

The President has a very limited role in state. The office is largely ceremonial. According to the Constitution the President is the supreme representative of the state both in Slovakia and abroad, and also acts as the Commander-in-chief of the Slovak Army. Among his constitutional powers are nominating and appointing the Prime Minister, three judges of the Constituional Court and three members of the Judicial Council. The Preident can also veto any bill (not including constitutional one) from the National Council. His veto can be overrriden if the National Council passes the same bill again with majority of all members of the Council.

Among his constituional duties are signing the bills into the law, appointing the ministers on the recommendatio from the Prime Minister and appointing various other state officials: generals, professors, judges, rectors, procurators etc. The President can grant a parole on the recommendatio of the Minister of Justice.

List of Presidents of Slovakia

Nº	Name	Entered office	Left office	Political party	Term
1	Michal Kováč	2 March 1993	2 March 1998	Movement for a Democratic Slovakia	1
2	Rudolf Schuster	15 June 1999	15 June 2004	Non-partisan	2
3	Ivan Gašparovič	15 June 2004	Incumbent	Movement for Democracy	3
3	Ivan Gašparovič	15 June 2004	Incumbent	Movement for Democracy	4

Between 2 March 1998 and 15 June 1999 the office was vacant. The Prime Minister and Speaker were excercising the duties of the office.

Latest election

e • d **Summary of the 21 March and 4 April 2009 Slovak **presidential** election results**
Candidates and nominating parties	1^st round		2^nd round
Candidates and nominating parties	Votes	%	Votes	%
Ivan Gašparovič (Smer, SNS, HZD)	876,061	46.71	1,234,787	55.53
Iveta Radičová (SDKÚ–DS, SMK, KDH, OKS)	713,735	38.05	988,808	44.47
František Mikloško (KDS)	101,573	5.42	—	—
Zuzana Martináková (SF)	96,035	5.12	—	—
Milan Melník (HZDS)	45,985	2.45	—	—
Dagmara Bollová	21,378	1.14	—	—
Milan Sidor (KSS)	20,862	1.11	—	—
Total (turnout 43.63% / 51.67%)	1,875,629	100.00	2,223,595	100.00
Sources: statistics.sk, volbysr.sk

President of Slovakia

Contents

History of the office

Role and Powers

List of Presidents of Slovakia

Latest election

See also