Voting Extended to 10:30 p.m. at Blhovce Polling Station for Health Reasons

Bratislava, 4 July (TASR) - Polling stations across Slovakia opened on time on Saturday morning for the referendum, except for one in the village of Blhovce near Rimavska Sobota (Banska Bystrica region), where the secretary of the local electoral commission experienced a health problem, State Electoral Commission chair Eduard Burda and head of the Interior Ministry's department for elections, referendums and political parties Martin Gajdos told a press conference on Saturday morning. Gajdos explained that "there was a health issue with the local electoral commission secretary, who is a municipal employee responsible for the electoral register". Due to the secretary's sudden health problem, the district electoral commission in Blhovce did not have access to the list of voters and opened half an hour late, at 7:30 a.m. The local polling station will therefore remain open until 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. In Slovakia, voters have access to 5,542 polling stations, while three additional district electoral commissions are handling postal votes from abroad. Burda said the State Electoral Commission would monitor any issues that might arise during the day and address them as necessary, adding that commission members could "carry out certain on-site visits, depending on individual needs". According to Police Corps Vice-president Rastislav Polakovic, sufficient personnel and resources have been deployed to ensure the referendum proceeds safely, and no disturbances have been reported so far. In the tenth referendum in independent Slovakia's history, voters are deciding on two questions: whether to abolish the so-called lifetime annuity granted under the law to certain constitutional office holders, including, for example, Prime Minister Robert Fico, and whether to restore the Office of the Special Prosecutor (UPS) and the National Crime Agency (NAKA). jrg