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• International Secretary Social Democrats, SLOVENIA: Local election results - 27-11-2006 14:59:51 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here

  Information on the Local Elections in Slovenia
  
  
  In November 2006 local elections took place in 210 Slovene municipalities to elect mayors under the majority system and municipal councillors under the proportional system. The election turnout was 58.22%.
  
  In the Social Democrats we are quite satisfied with election results. We managed to consolidate our position as the third most powerful political party in the country, turn the party's success trend upwards for the first time, significantly reduce our distance from both leading parties and win 105 new seats in municipal councils (from 282 to 387) as compared to the 2002 elections.
  
  The results of municipal council elections were as follows:
  
  Political Party: % votes 2006
  
  LDS ( Liberal Democracy of Slovenia): 14,95
  SDS ( Slovene Democratic Party): 16,75
  SD (Social Democrats): 11,98
  SLS (Slovene People’s Party): 9,40
  NSI ( New Slovenia - Christian People's Party): 6,33
  DESUS (Democratic Party of Retired People of Slovenia): 5,24
  SMS (Party of Slovenia's Youth): 2,21
  SNS ( Slovenian National Party): 2,46
  AS (Active Slovenia): 1,58
  Independent and non-party lists, others: 29,10
  
  
  These were the first elections following the victory of the centre-right coalition led by the SDS (Slovene Democratic Party) at the last general elections in 2004 and many people anticipated a major predominance of the governing coalition parties at the local level too. However, apart from the rise of the governing SDS, none of the other centre-right coalition parties (SLS, NSi, Desus) won more votes than four years ago. Among opposition parties the Social Democrats were the only ones whose voter support grew.
  
  While we can be very satisfied with the result of elections for municipal councillors, we were slightly less victorious than expected in mayoral elections. In the overall number of mayors we still have a similar number as four years ago, but on the other hand our candidates in both largest cities, Ljubljana and Maribor, failed to win another term. In other cities the party managed to maintain or even strengthen its position. As for the capital, we saw a unique case of an extremely resounding victory by an independent candidate and his candidate list, who managed to beat practically all political parties. He was also sucessful in convincing the left-right oriented electorate, which still has a majority in the capital, by promoting a programme and values close to our own electorate. Such results are an important warning for the activity of our party over the next two years until the general elections.
  
  Let me also mention two important features characteristic of the last elections and, in our view, of the broader trends in Europe as well.
  
  The first characteristic is the growing distrust in political parties reflected in the higher number of councillors and mayors elected from among non-aligned and independent candidates and candidate lists. For all parties, and in particular for the left ones, this fact is important both in the planning of day-to-day activities and in devising our strategies.
  
  The second characteristic is the upsurge of extremely aggressive and intolerant election campaign of some, generally independent candidates and candidate lists supported by the capital and right parties. This was the first time Slovenia saw a negative campaign of this extent, since despite all circumstances we always managed to preserve an appropriate level of political culture in election debates so far. Regrettably, we believe this too is a reflection of the present coalition's activity and some of its acts and measures as well as tolerance of aggressive behaviour among its members.
  
  Nevertheless, we, the Social Democrats are planning our activities for 2008 with optimism; our intention is to present an alternative government programme and compete as an alternative to the present governing coalition.

   

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