The Electoral Panel declares the election of the mayor of Hromoš municipality null and void

The election action was brought by an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of the municipality who received 150 votes in the municipal elections in the municipality of Hromoš. The defendant is a successful candidate for mayor of the municipality who received 158 votes in the municipal election. The difference between the candidates for the office of mayor of the municipality was 8 votes.

The plaintiff challenged the election of the mayor of the municipality. He argued that the members of the electoral commission did not vote among themselves as to which members would conduct the election by means of a portable ballot box among the voters requesting such a vote, as provided for in Act No 180/2014 Coll. on the conditions for exercising the right to vote. In view of the aforementioned doubt, Panel No. 13 of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic further examined the voting process by portable ballot box, as well as whether there was any impermissible influence on the outcome of the voting.

In the action, the plaintiff also alleged serious distortions in the conduct of the elections and breaches of the electoral moratorium, which could have had a significant impact on the decision-making of some of the voters.

One of the focuses of the present election action is also the objection that the candidate for the office of the mayor of the municipality (the defendant in the proceedings before the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic) was repeatedly present at the polling station in the municipality of Hromoš for the precinct election commission No. 2 during the elections, i.e. during the voting (outside the time when he voted) and after the end of the voting, at the time of the counting of the votes.

The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic considers the aforementioned interference by the defendant in the elections and the voting in the portable box to be unacceptable interference in the elections by the candidate, which, together with the aforementioned violations, constitutes a complex of violations and interference with the freedom of the elections of such intensity as to justify declaring the elections null and void and their repetition.

The Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic declares the election of the Mayor of the Municipality of Hromoš, held on 29 October 2022, null and void. The decision was adopted unanimously and is final on 12 January 2023. The anonymised decision will be published on the website of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic within 30 days from the date of its pronouncement

In the election action Ing. František Mojcher c/a Bc. Maroš Kočiš was decided by Panel No. 13 composed of: JUDr. Viola Takáčová, PhD., President of the Panel (Judge-rapporteur); and Judges JUDr. Katarína Benczová, JUDr. Jana Martinčeková, JUDr. Michal Matulník, PhD., Mgr. Kristína Babiaková.