Public administration reform and the first regional elections in Slovakia

The present text describes process of creating of public administration reform and the first regional elections in the Slovak republic. The protracted and dramatic process of creating of public administration reform in Slovakia reflected antagonism, differing interests and approaches of government coalition members and-thus revealed heterogeneous character of the government coalition and increasing distance between some of the coalition political parties. The approved form of the reform was considerably influenced especially by the major opposition political party HZDS. The implementation of public administration reform shall be gradual and longer-termed (2002-2004). The first Slovak regional elections, feature was a very low turnout (26 %; 22,6 %). The strongest portion of representatives in the regional assemblies was won by the opposition party HZDS. The Hungarian minority party SMK/MKP was also very successful, although it did not prove to have capacity to win the 2. round of the regional chairman elections. On the other hand, prime minister's SDKU failed. The character of election coalitions and support declarations seem to indicate certain re-configuration of political forces in Slovakia.