(28 Feb 2020) Slovakia goes to the vote on February 29 to elect a new parliament.
After a political turmoil caused by the murder of an investigative journalist and his fiancée, Saturday's elections could dethrone a far-right party and anti-migrant party which has dominated the Slovak politics in recent years.
Public opinion polls predicted that no party will have an absolute majority, so a coalition government would be created between a centre-right and far-right parties, which are supposed to win the highest number of parliamentary seats.
Saturday's ballot is also expected to send the Social Democratic party led by the populist former Prime Minister Robert Fico into the opposition after its reputation has been badly tarnished by corruption scandals.
That party won big in all general elections since 2006.
The ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians, might not win any seats, polls suggested.
The conservative-populist group known as the Ordinary People is favoured to win the vote with some 19%.
Its chairman, Igor Matovic, has made an anti-corruption appeal and attacks on Fico the central tenet of his campaign.
"Like typical populists, they divide the world between the corrupt elite and millions of ordinary people who are managed by those corrupted elites," Michal Vasecka, a political analyst at the Bratislava Policy Institute.
In a shocking result four years ago, the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia won 8% and 14 seats in Parliament.
In contrast to most of European far-right groups, analysts said the party it's a truly neo-Nazi one, as it advocates for the legacy of the Slovak Nazi WWII state.
Led by Marian Kotleba, party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime in deprived areas, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and the European Union.
The predicted victory would make Matovic the top candidate for the future prime minister.
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