BRATISLAVA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Smer-SD party wins Slovakia's parliamentary election on Saturday with 22.94 percent of the votes, the State Electoral Commission said on Sunday.
The Progressive Slovakia party garnered 17.96 percent of the votes and the HLAS party, founded by former members of Smer in 2020, got 14.7 percent.
As the left-wing Smer party won 42 seats in the 150-member House, falling short of 75 seats, it has to ally with other parties to form a coalition government.
The Progressive party leader has indicated not joining a Smer coalition, thus the HLAS could become the deciding factor for the Smer in creating a coalition government.
Also on Sunday, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova said on social media that she was going to adhere to the constitutional tradition by tasking the election winner Smer with forming the government on Oct. 2.
She said the election was "free, democratic and created a real image of the Slovak society."
A total of 24 political parties and one coalition contested in the early election. More than 300 million voters cast their ballots during the ninth election since Slovakia split from Czechoslovakia 30 year ago. The voter turnout of this election was 68.5 percent. ■
