(6 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bratislava, Slovakia - 06 April 2024
1. Ballot paper
2. Ballot box with Slovak flag
3. Entry of polling station
4. Presidential candidate Peter Pellegrini arriving with his parents and sister
5. Pellegrini checking his parents
6. Pellegrini getting ballot papers
7. Pellegrini casting his vote
8. Pellegrini getting outside
9. SOUNDBITE (Slovak) Peter Pellegrini, candidate for Slovakian president:
"It's truly going to be extremely close, and that's why I want to urge everyone who wants to use their constitutional right to vote to go out and vote. Everything is ready for the election. Every citizen is free to express his or her views, whatever they may be. Instead, perhaps, at this point, I would urge everyone to be more tolerant so that there is more peace and that people stop attacking each other just because someone is voting for a different candidate than the other. Because we have seen in recent weeks as if there is only one truth, and these elections have divided Slovak society even more. Therefore, the biggest challenge for the new president will be to calm that situation down and to bring the nation together in some way, at least on those issues where it is possible to do so."
10. Pellegrini meeting with his supporters
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Pellegrini, candidate for Slovakian president:
"It's important to know that not the others will decide how the next five years will look in Slovakia. So that's why I'm asking everybody who has the right to vote to use this right. Because this is really democracy and Slovakia is a democratic republic. And it's up to them if they will use it or not. But I think it is not about the future direction of the foreign policy of Slovakia because I also guarantee, as the other candidate, that we will continue to be a strong member of the European Union and NATO. So, these elections are not about this."
12. Pellegrini taking a photo with his supporters
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Pellegrini, candidate for Slovakian president:
"Absolutely not. Slovakia will always stay Slovakia. Slovakia will never be; Czech Republic never will be; Poland, never will be; the United States, and also no other Hungary. We will stay the sovereign Slovak Republic with our own ideas, our own brain, and our own traditions"
14 Pellegrini leaving
STORYLINE:
Slovaks cast their votes in their nation's presidential election on Saturday, with many hoping for a better future.
Peter Pellegrini, a close ally of Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, is considered a favourite in the race for the largely ceremonial post.
A victory for Pellegrini, who currently serves as Parliament speaker, would cement Fico's power by giving his allies control of strategic posts.
It would also deprive Slovakia and the European Union of a key pro-Ukrainian voice.
Pellegrini hopes to succeed Zuzana Čaputová, a staunch backer of Slovakia's neighbour Ukraine in its fight against Russia's two-year invasion.
Čaputová announced she won't seek re-election.
Pellegrini's opponent is Ivan Korčok, a career diplomat who surprisingly won the first round.
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