(23 Mar 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Senec, Slovakia - 23 March 2024
1. Various of presidential candidate Ivan Korcok arriving with his wife, Sona
2. Korcok taking ballot paper
3. Electoral workers
4. Korcok waiting for his wife to cast vote, then dropping ballots together
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ivan Korcok, presidential candidate:
"You would understand there is a moratorium at this moment. I have to respect it. Everybody you know who has been following my positions knows where I stand when it comes to Ukraine. But at this moment, my message is to my fellow citizens: go and vote because you have a very important decision in your hands. You will determine who will be the next head of state. And that will be very important when it comes to important foreign policy issues."
6. Korcok and his wife leaving
STORYLINE:
Slovaks were voting on Saturday in a ballot to elect a successor to Zuzana Čaputová, the country’s first female president and a staunch backer of Slovakia’s neighbor Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s two-year invasion.
Former Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok, a pro-Western career diplomat, cast his ballot at a polling station in Senec.
Korčok had also served as the ambassador to the United States and Germany, and firmly supports Slovakia’s EU and NATO memberships.
Peter Pellegrini, a close ally of Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, is considered a favorite in the race for the largely ceremonial post of president.
Pellegrini, 48, leads a field of nine candidates in the first round of the presidential election to become the country’s sixth head of state since Slovakia gained independence in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split in two.
If no candidate gets a majority, which is expected, the top two finishers will go through to a runoff on April 6.
Most public polls expected a narrow victory for Pellegrini in the first round.
Čaputová has said she will not seek a second five-year term.
AP video shot by Bela Szandelsky
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