President of Slovakia

President of the Slovak Republic Prezident Slovenskej republiky
Presidential Standard
Incumbent Andrej Kiska since 15 June 2014
Residence	Grassalkovich Palace Bratislava
Appointer	Popular vote
Term length	Five years renewable once, consecutively
Inaugural holder	Michal Kováč 2 March 1993
Formation	Constitution of Slovakia
Salary	c. 110,880 €[1]
Website	President of the Slovak Republic

The President of the Slovak Republic (Slovak: Prezident Slovenskej republiky) is the head of state of Slovakia and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The president is directly elected by the people for five years, and can be elected for a maximum of two consecutive terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the president does exercise certain limited powers with absolute discretion. The president's official residence is the Grassalkovich Palace in Bratislava.

History of the office

The office was established by the constitution of Slovakia on 1 January 1993 when Slovakia permanently split from Czechoslovakia and became independent. The office was vacant until 2 March 1993 when the first president Michal Kováč was elected by the National Council of Slovak Republic. However, in 1998, the National Council was unable to elect a successor to Kováč. The result was that for half a year after Kováč's term ended in March 1998, the position was vacant. The duties and powers of the office were devolved upon the then prime minister and speaker of the National Council. In order to come to a solution, the constitution was changed to transfer election of the president to the people. Presidential elections have been held in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

The current president is Andrej Kiska, who took office on 15 June 2014.

Role and powers

The President of Slovakia has a limited role in policy-making, as the office is largely ceremonial. According to the constitution, the president is the supreme representative of the state both in Slovakia and abroad.

Among his constitutional powers are nominating and appointing the Prime Minister, three judges of the constitutional court and three members of the judicial council. The president can also veto any bill (not including constitutional one) from the National Council. His veto can be overridden if the National Council passes the same bill again with majority of all members of the Council. The president also acts as the commander-in-chief of the Slovak armed forces.

Among his other constitutional duties are signing the bills into the law, appointing the ministers on the recommendation of the prime minister and appointing various other state officials: generals, professors, judges, rectors, procurators and such. The president can grant a parole on the recommendation of the minister of justice.

Presidents of the Slovak Republic

Parties

  HZDS   Independent   HZD

No.	President		Took office	Left office	Party	Term	Previous office
-		Vladimír Mečiar (1942–)	1 January 1993	2 March 1993	Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS)	- (-)	Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic (1990-1991, 1992-1994)
1		Michal Kováč (1930–2016)	2 March 1993	2 March 1998	Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS)	1 (1993)	Chairman of the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic (1992)
2		Rudolf Schuster (1936–)	15 June 1999	15 June 2004	Independent	2 (1999)	Member of the National Council (1998–1999) Mayor of Košice (1994–1999)
3		Ivan Gašparovič (1941–)	15 June 2004	15 June 2014	Movement for Democracy (HZD)	3 (2004)	Chairman of the National Council (1993–1998)
						4 (2009)
4		Andrej Kiska (1963–)	15 June 2014	Incumbent	Independent	5 (2014)	None

Acting Presidents

Name	Term
Vladimír Mečiar Ivan Gašparovič	2 March 1998 – 30 October 1998 14 July 1998 – 30 October 1998
Mikuláš Dzurinda Jozef Migaš	30 October 1998 – 15 June 1999

Latest election

 Summary of the 15 March and 29 March 2014 Slovak presidential election results

Candidates and nominating parties	1^st round		2^nd round
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Robert Fico (Smer)	531,919	28.0	893,841	40.61
Andrej Kiska (Independent)	455,996	24.0	1,307,065	59.38
Radoslav Procházka (Independent)	403,548	21.2
Milan Kňažko (Independent)	244,401	12.9
Gyula Bárdos (SMK–MKP)	97,035	5.1
Pavol Hrušovský (KDH, SDKÚ–DS, Most)	63,298	3.3
Helena Mezenská (Independent)	45,180	2.4
Ján Jurišta (KSS)	12,209	0.6
Ján Čarnogurský (Independent)	12,207	0.6
Viliam Fischer (Independent)	9,514	0.5
Jozef Behýl (Independent)	9,126	0.5
Milan Melník (Independent])	7,678	0.4
Jozef Šimko (SMS)	4,674	0.2
Stanislav Martinčko (KOS)	2,547	0.1
Total (turnout 43.40% / 50.48% )	1,899,332	100.00	2,200,906	100.00
Sources: statistics.sk

Living former Presidents

There are two living former Slovak Presidents and one living former acting president:

• 
  Vladimír Mečiar
  (1993)
  July 26, 1942
• 
  Rudolf Schuster
  (1999-2004)
  January 4, 1936
• 
  Ivan Gašparovič
  (2004-2014)
  March 27, 1941

See also

• List of Presidents of Czechoslovakia
• List of Prime Ministers of Slovakia
• List of leaders of Slovak parliaments

References

1. "ZÁKON O PLATOVÝCH POMEROCH NIEKTORÝCH ÚSTAVNÝCH ČINITEĽOV SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY" (PDF) (in Slovak). Government of Slovakia. 13 March 2013.