2004 Slovak presidential election

Slovak Presidential election

3 April & 17 April 2004

Nominee Ivan Gašparovič Vladimír Mečiar Party HZD ĽS–HZDS Popular vote 1,079,592 722,368 Percentage 59.9% 40.1%

President before election Rudolf Schuster Nonpartisan Elected President Ivan Gašparovič HZD

Presidential elections were held in Slovakia on 3 April 2004, with a second round on 17 April. Although former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar received the most votes in the first round, he was defeated by Ivan Gašparovič in the run-off.

The result was surprising because nobody expected Eduard Kukan to be eliminated in the first round. He polled 1st prior the first round with over 30% support. Ivan Gašparovič himself didn't expect to qualify for the second round as he went home to sleep and found out about his success only when he was waken up by phone calls of his friends.

Results

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Vladimír Mečiar	People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia	650,242	32.7	722,368	40.1
Ivan Gašparovič	Movement for Democracy	442,564	22.3	1,079,592	59.9
Eduard Kukan	Slovak Democratic and Christian Union	438,920	22.1
Rudolf Schuster	Independent	147,549	7.4
František Mikloško	Christian Democratic Movement	129,414	6.5
Martin Bútora	Independent	129,387	6.5
Ján Králik	Party of the Democratic Left	15,873	0.8
Jozef Kalman	Left Bloc	10,221	0.5
Július Kubík	Independent	7,734	0.4
Jozef Šesták	Independent	6,785	0.3
Stanislav Bernát	Independent	5,719	0.3
Ľubo Roman	Alliance of the New Citizen	1,806	0.1
Invalid/blank votes		29,675	–	26,347	–
Total		2,015,889	100	1,828,307	100
Registered voters/turnout		4,204,899	47.9	4,202,597	43.5
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, European Election Database, Our Campaigns