Elections in Slovakia return record-high number of Romani mayors - 52

In the Banská Bystrica Region, 19 Romani mayors were elected, followed by 15 in the Prešov Region and 14 in Košice. At district level, the densest distribution of Romani men and women elected mayor was in Rimavská Sobota, with 12 local communities there now led by a member of this minority.

According to Ábel Ravasz, IMB president, it is important to monitor the Romani candidates’ success rates during elections to local government in order to ensure meaningful participation by Romani community members in local political processes. “Nationality does not equal expertise, but it is difficult for me to imagine justice in society without minority representation in local governments,” he told Aktuality.sk.

“According to the 2019 Atlas of Romani Communities survey, we know that there are as many as 171 communities in Slovakia where Romani people make up more than half of the population and another 134 communities where they are at least one-third of the population. Compared to those numbers, 52 elected mayors remains rather low. However, we can assess the growing tendency of Romani candidates getting elected since 2018 as positive,” the IMB president said.

The Institute has also noticed that Romani mayors are facing rather high fluctuation after taking office. Just 56 % of the currently-elected Romani mayors were re-elected, the rest are new or, in some cases, held the office earlier (but not during the last cycle).

One mayor who won re-election leads Košice’s Luník IX Municipal Department, Marcel Šaňa (Romani Coalition Party – SRK). Data published by the Slovak Statistical Office show that he won a total of 87.36 % of the ballots cast, which is 636 votes.

His opponent Norbert Hmilanský, who is quite active on social media, did not win election in Luník IX, receiving just three votes. The most Romani mayors were elected from the candidate list of the Romani Coalition Party (12), another 10 ran on the HLAS-Social Democracy list, six on the Hungarian Christian Democratic Alliance list, and five on the list of the Princíp party.

The local and regional elections were held simultaneously in Slovakia for the first time, and Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová said most voters rejected extremism and populism. “I consider an important message of these elections to also be that according to the results published so far, people chose candidates who are democratic and experienced, and the majority rejected extremism and populism, ” she posted to social media ahead of the definitive results being announced.