The 2018 Slovak local elections were held on Saturday, 10 November 2018, to elect deputies to municipality councils, city councils and mayors, including mayors of boroughs and members of their councils in

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

and

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...

. The turnout slightly increased compared to last elections in 2014 to 48.67%. The highest turnout rate was recorded in

Prešov Region The Prešov Region, also Priashiv Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj, ; hu, Eperjesi kerület; uk, Пряшівський край) is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 o ...

(53.18%), and the lowest turnout rate in

Bratislava Region The Bratislava Region ( sk, Bratislavský kraj, , german: Pressburger/Bratislavaer Landschaftsverband (until 1919), hu, Pozsonyi kerület) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. Its capital is Bratislava. The region was first esta ...

(43.74%). Locally the highest percentage of votes cast was in

Chorváty Chorváty ( hu, Tornahorváti, Torna-Horváti) is a village and municipality in the Greater Košice District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. History Historically, the village was first mentioned in 1247. The name means "Croatian" ...

Košice-okolie District Košice–okolie District (''okres Košice–okolie''; hu, Kassa-vidéki járás) is a district in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. It surrounds the city of Košice, which serves as the district seat although it does not belong to the dist ...

(89.88%, 80 out of 89), and the lowest in Košice's borough Luník IX (19.44%, 862 out of 4,434). In 762

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, only one candidate ran for mayor, therefore, these candidates needed only one vote to be elected. These included two cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants,

Brezno Brezno (; 1927–1948 ''Brezno nad Hronom'', german: Bries or ''Briesen'', hu, Breznóbánya) is a town in central Slovakia with a population of around 21,000. Geography Brezno is located within the Geomorphological division of Slovakia, Horehr ...

and

Šaľa Šaľa (; hu, Vágsellye, german: Schelle) is a town in south-western Slovakia. Geography The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on both banks of the Váh River, around 65 km from Bratislava and 30 km from Nové Zámky. Except t ...

. In five municipalities, there was no candidate for mayor.

Electoral system

The commune elections in Slovakia use the one-round system for all elected seats. Mayoral elections utilize the

first-past-the-post voting system In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

compared to local councils where voters choose from the list same number of candidates as are representing theirs

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

. The candidates with the highest number of votes are elected.

Overall results

The following tables summarize the elected mayors and council deputies by their party affiliation.

Mayor elections

Council deputies

Results in major cities

Bratislava

The incumbent mayor

Ivo Nesrovnal Ivo Nesrovnal, LL.M. (; born 19 May 1964, Bratislava) is a Slovak lawyer, politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, rejec ...

elected as independent candidate decided to run for second term. However, he was defeated by architect and civil activist

Matúš Vallo Matúš Vallo (born 18 September 1977) is a Slovak politician, architect, urban activist, musician, and the current Mayor of Bratislava. He was elected in 2018 with 36.5% of the vote as an independent politician, and re-elected in 2022 with 60.2% ...

, supported by

Progressive Slovakia Progressive Slovakia ( sk, Progresívne Slovensko) is a social-liberal, progressive, pro-European political party in Slovakia established in 2017. The party is led by European Parliament vice-president Michal Šimečka. In the European Parliam ...

and Together - Civic Democracy who became new mayor and defeated another independent candidate and former director-general of

Radio and Television of Slovakia Radio and Television of Slovakia ( sk, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska ) or RTVS is a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. It is headquartered in Bratislava and led by Ľuboš Machaj. History The organization i ...

, Václav Mika. Out of 17 new elected mayors of boroughs were 10

independent candidates An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

and 7 candidates with the support of different centre-right coalitions - each with

Freedom and Solidarity Freedom and Solidarity ( sk, Sloboda a solidarita, SaS) is a liberal political party in Slovakia. Established in 2009, SaS is led by its founder and economist Richard Sulík, who designed Slovakia's flat tax system. It generally holds libertari ...

, We Are Family and New Majority.

Košice

The previous mayor, 2014-elected

Richard Raši Richard Raši (born 2 April 1971) is a Slovak physician and politician who served as Slovakia's Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Information. A member of the Voice – Social Democracy ( sk, Hlas – sociálna demokracia) political party, ...

( SMER-SD), resigned from office after his appointment to new government as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

. Responsibility for the mayor office was taken over by Martin Petruško ( SMER-SD). The campaign was influenced by rumored child harassment scandal of opposition candidate, Jaroslav Polaček that caused his loss of support from few major political parties. These rumors were later demented and Polaček won the election. Out of 22 new elected mayors of boroughs were 13

, 7 candidates with the support of different centre-right coalitions - each with

and

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Slovakia, political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP ...

, 1 candidate of

Direction – Social Democracy Direction may refer to: *Relative direction, for instance left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down ** Anatomical terms of location for those used in anatomy ** List of ship directions *Cardinal direction Mathematics and science *Directio ...

and 1 from Party of the Romani Coalition.

Prešov

Andrea Turčanová - the incumbent mayor elected with support of center-right coalition confirmed in February 2018 intention to candidate for re-election. Her biggest rival was the former mayor (2006-2014) and independent candidate Pavel Hagyari.

Žilina

Mayor of

Žilina Žilina (; hu, Zsolna, ; german: Sillein, or ; pl, Żylina , names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the fourth largest city of Sl ...

- Igor Choma ( SMER-SD) announced he was not going to run for re-election. On the other hand, in Žilina occurred increased number of

elected to council. Election was won by Peter Fiabáne (

NEKA Neka ( fa, نكا, also Romanized as Nekā’ and Nekā; also known as Nīkā; formerly, Nāranj Bāgh) is a city and capital of Neka County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 46,152, in 11,941 families. Geograph ...

) who was externally supported by both liberal and conservative center-right parties.

Banská Bystrica

References

{{Slovak elections Elections in Slovakia 2018 elections in Europe November 2018 events in Europe 2018 in Slovakia Local elections in Slovakia