Rasi Hopes Coalition Will Return to Dropping Single District from Constitution

Bratislava, 22 July (TASR) - House Chair Richard Rasi (Voice-SD) still believes that the coalition will return to dropping a single (nationwide) electoral district from the Constitution, hoping that agreement will eventually be found and the given sentence will be removed. Rasi said this when answering a question by TASR regarding such a move, which Voice-SD wanted to push through via an amending proposal to the government's draft amendment to the Constitution, but MPs rejected it. "First, we'll wait to see how it will turn out with the Constitution as a whole, whether Parliament approves it or not. If it doesn't, maybe there will be a new amendment to the Constitution in which it could be incorporated," Rasi told TASR. He claims that the provision stating that Slovakia forms a single electoral district for general elections was inserted into the Constitution during the previous government's term out of fear. Rasi opines that a system set up in this way isn't fair, with regions being underrepresented in it. "It's all about people in a region electing someone who lives there, whom they trust and who will represent their interests in Parliament," he said. He pointed out that dropping the provision would not bring about specific changes to the electoral system, but would only open a debate on them. Rasi doesn't understand why any of the coalition partners should have a problem with the proposal in question. "There's no logical explanation for why someone would defend the sentence put there by Igor Matovic, and I believe that once the [state] budget and consolidation are passed, which is crucial for the functioning of the state, we'll sit down at a table and return to it," he said. ko/df