A former authoritarian prime minister and his one-time ally face a presidential runoff for the chance to lead Slovakia into the EU, election results showed on Sunday.
The winner of the presidential runoff vote will help guide Slovakia in its first years in NATO and the EU. Slovakia joined the NATO alliance last week, and becomes an EU member on May 1.
Vladimir Meciar, a smooth-talking nationalist, and his opponent, former right-hand man, Ivan Gasparovic, eliminated the favorite, Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, in a vote with a turnout of a mere 47.94 percent.
Meciar led with 32.7 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission. Gasparovic followed with about 22.3 percent, edging out Kukan who had 22.1 percent.
Since no candidate won a majority of the vote, with 50 percent or more, the two candidates advance to an April 17 runoff. The president's role is largely ceremonial.
A referendum supported by opposition parties and labor unions calling for early parliamentary elections failed because the turnout fell below the required 50 percent. Among those who voted, an overwhelming 86.8 percent supported early elections.
Gasparovic, who left Meciar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia in 2002, received a major boost when the largest opposition party, Smer, advised its voters to support him. The party has slammed every government move on reforms, arguing that the new laws have made poor Slovaks even worse off.
Gasparovic and Meciar capitalized on voter discontent over past economic austerity measures.
Saturday's results were a rebuke to Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, who managed to get Slovakia into the EU after years of austerity measures meant to make the country eligible for membership and legal reforms intended to improve the country's image after Meciar's dictatorial rule during much of the 1990s.
"Slovaks like to forget things," said Peter Javurek, a leading commentator for the daily newspaper, Sme. "They forgot what Meciar as prime minister has done. They only remember the recent problems."
In past months, the government has introduced a series of economic reforms, such as a flat 19 percent income tax. Others tax changes raised the price of basic foods. And social programs were cut too, while unemployment stands at about 16.5 percent.
Dzurinda's party was also implicated in several scandals, including one centering on the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union's financing.
One retiree, Anna Didakova, was among the older people suffering economic hardships who voted to oust Dzurinda's supporters.
"We as pensioners are living in difficult times," she said, expressing confidence in both Meciar and Gasparovic. "They may not make things better. But they will not make things worse for us."
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