RFE/RL NEWSLINE 
Vol. 1, No. 194, 13 January 1998


HUNGARY, SLOVAKIA DISCUSS HYDROPOWER DAM
PROPOSALS. Slovakia  has rejected Hungarian proposals to
replace the unfinished hydro-electric  dam at Nagymaros but
agreed that the water level of the River Danube should be
maintained by building a plant identical or similar to the one
originally planned. Hungarian delegation head Janos Nemcsok
told Hungarian media after talks in Bratislava on 12 January
that Slovakia is ready to drop its insistence that a dam be built
at Nagymaros and has accepted as a partial solution Hungary's
proposal to make the reservoir at Dunakiliti operational. The
two sides released a joint statement expressing the need to
honor the 1977 agreement as much as possible  but noted that
the document cannot be fully honored . The next round of talks
is scheduled for 26 January in Budapest. MSZ

SLOVAKIA PREPARES FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
by Jolyon Naegele

Ivan Gasparovic, speaker of the Slovakia parliament,
announced last week that lawmakers will convene on 23
January to hold the first round of elections for president. He
also called on deputies to submit presidential nominations in
writing by 12 January.
        But opposition leaders warn that it is quite likely that the
parliament will be unable to agree on a new president in the
first round, or in the second round 14 days later, or even in the
third round 30 days after that.
        Two candidates backed by the opposition and one
independent are in the running. The Party of the Democratic
Left (SDL) is sponsoring academician-agronomist Juraj Hrasko,
who until 1989 was a member of the Slovak Communist Party
(KSS) and served briefly in 1993 as environment minister. The
centrist Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) is backing Stefan
Markus, who does not belong to any party, is a science
centrist Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) is backing Stefan
Markus, who does not belong to any party, is a science
secretary of the Academy of Sciences, and chairs the Slovak
Helsinki Committee. Augustin Kurek, an independent, was
proposed by a single deputy who has split from a junior
partner in Vladimir Meciar's coalition.
        No candidate appears to have a chance of being elected.
The opposition has only 63 of the 150 seats in the parliament,
and in order to win, a candidate must have the support of at
least 90 deputies. Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's Movement
for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) has 61 seats in the assembly
and can block any candidate not to its liking. Meciar is already
on record as saying no one will be elected in the first round
and has branded Hrasko and Markus as "unacceptable"
candidates.
        Neither the HZDS nor its two coalition partners intend to
nominate anyone in the first round.
The leftist SDL considered several compromise
candidates, including Constitutional Court Chief Justice Milan Cic
and populist mayor of Kosice Rudolf Schuster, a member of
Slovakia's small Carpathian-German minority. Schuster was
viewed as a rising star on the political scene during the final
years of communist rule, having served as speaker of the
Slovak Parliament during and immediately after the 1989
Velvet Revolution. Meciar, however, labeled Schuster as
unacceptable owing to alleged "character faults."
        The most likely scenario appears to be that once
President Michal Kovac's five-year term expires on 2 March,
the country will be without a head of state until after
parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place in the fall.
Meanwhile, some of the president's functions, including the role
of commander and chief, will be assumed by Meciar himself.
        The timing of the first round does not appear to be
arbitrary. President Kovac is due to be out of town that day,
hosting a summit of 11 Central European presidents in Levoca,
eastern Slovakia.  The presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, and Ukraine are due to meet in Levoca
on 23-24 January. Kovac has proposed that the gathering
discuss the emergence and maintenance of civic society.
        Kovac, whose resignation has been demanded for several
years by Meciar's  HZDS,  is not running for re-election.  Former
Prime Minister Jan Carnogursky has ruled out supporting
Meciar as a compromise presidential candidate, saying electing
him "would not be a good signal at home or abroad." But
Carnogursky added that who is elected is less than important
than ensuring regular elections. To prevent any attempts at
election fraud, he argues, foreign observers should be invited.
Meciar, however, has already rejected that proposal on the
grounds that "Slovakia is not Albania."
        Both Carnogursky and SDL leader Jozef Migas say it is
unlikely that a president will be elected before the fall
parliamentary elections. Carnogursky says he still supports a
change in the constitution that would enable the voting public
to elect the president.
        A referendum question on enabling the president to be
elected directly was retracted last May by Meciar's Interior
Minister Gustav Krajci just hours before voters were to go to
the polls. That happened, despite half a million petition
signatures calling for the president to be elected directly.
        For its part, Meciar's HZDS claims it wants a president
elected soon. HZDS deputy chairman Arpad Matejka warns that
if no one is elected president., the legislative process will be
paralyzed since the constitution allows only the president to
sign bills into law.
         But SDL chief Migas suspects various factors may be
involved in the HZDS's refusal to nominate a candidate for the
first two rounds. He told the Bratislava daily "Sme" that the
HZDS may be holding back their candidate on tactical grounds
until a later round. He added that "it cannot be excluded that
the HZDS is not interested in a head of state being elected."
        Meanwhile, "Sme" reported last week that the rooftop
digital clock that faces the presidential palace in Bratislava and
counts the time Kovac has left in office has been switched off. A
small group of anonymous citizens wanting to express their
dissatisfaction with the current situation were allegedly behind
that move.

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