Slovakia is a parliamentary democracy with a multi-party political system. Legislative power is vested in the parliament, the National Council of the Slovak Republic, which consists of 150 MPs, who are assigned seats on the basis of proportional representation for the 4-year term.
Executive power is exercised by the coalition of parties which form the Government headed by the Prime Minister(since 2006 Robert Fico).
The Judiciary is independent of the executive and legislative power and consists of general courts and a separate court, which is the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republik. The highest instance of appeal is a national-level Supreme Court, supervising 8 regional courts seated in regional capitals and 54 district courts seated in some district capitals.
The official head of the state is the President, elected by direct popular vote for a five-year term.
Overview of the Slovak political structure:
Head of state
President of the republic, elected directly; Ivan Gasparovic was reelected on April 5, 2009
Electoral system
Universal direct suffrage for party lists; proportional representation, subject to 5% threshold
National elections
April 5th 2009 (presidential); June 17th 2006 (legislative); next presidential election due in 2014; next legislative election due in 2010
National government
Coalition government headed by Robert Fico was sworn in on July 4th 2006
Main political parties
Ruling parties: Direction-Social Democracy (Smer-SD); Slovak National Party (SNS); People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS).
Opposition parties: Slovak Democratic and Christian Union-Democratic Party (SDKU-DS); Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK); Christian Democratic Movement (KDH)
Slovak Ministers(28.09.2009):
Agriculture: Vladimír Chovan (¼S-HZDS)
Culture: Marek Madaric (SMER-SD)
Defence: Jaroslav Baska (SMER-SD)
Economy & Construction: Lubomir Jahnatek (SMER-SD)
Education: Jan Mikolaj (SNS)
Environment: Jozef Medveļ (SNS)
Finance: Jan Pociatek (SMER-SD)
Foreign affairs: Miroslav Lajčák (SMER-SD)
Health: Richard Rasi (SMER-SD)
Interior: Robert Kalinak (SMER-SD)
Justice: Viera Petríková (¼S-HZDS)
Labour, social affairs&family: Viera Tomanova (SMER-SD)
Transport, post&telecommunications: Lubomir Vazny (SMER-SD)
