Party of Civil Understanding Approved Final Version of Candidate List

BRATISLAVA (SITA) The Party of Civil Understanding (SOP) all-republic board approved the final version of the list of its candidates running in September elections in Starý Smokovec. Košice Mayor Rudolf Schuster is the SOP election leader followed by Pavol Hamžík (former Foreign Minister in Mečiars Cabinet), Banská Bystrica Mayor Igor Presperin, Marián Mesiarik, and famous opera singer Peter Dvorský, SOP press secretary Katarína Čižmáriková told SITA. The wife of the director of Markiza private TV Viera Rusková and TV sports anchor Michal Arpáš are also among the candidates. Racecar driver Jirko Malchárek, constitutional lawyer Peter Kresák, president of the Association of Private Physicians Ladislav Pasztor, and former Police president Jozef Holdoš are also running for the SOP. The election program of the Party of Civil Understanding (SOP), as SOP seniors characterized, is an open program. „It emerged thanks to the citizens and is open for the eventual comments of the citizens or other political or apolitical bodies,“ SOP vice chairman Pavol Hamžík said. He claims the program is not built on concrete promises, but rather on definitions and starting points for solving the present situation. „It is a return to the problems and their solutions and a distancing from party interests approaching the citizen,“ Hamžík said. The SOP intends to focus on the normalization of the political stage, the democratization of the society, respect for the constitution, shaping conditions for Slovakias fast and effective entry into NATO and EU, the development of local policy and medium-size businesses, and curing problems health care and education. Concerning privatization, the SOP wants eliminate from it things like stealing, siphoning, and bankruptcy, and it intends to punish violations of the law on the conditions of contracts on transferring the state property to privatizers. In the case of election success, the SOP will make every effort to secure monitoring of all legislation involving every supervisory bureau and the tax bureaus.