BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak voters appeared to have handed strongman Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar`s government a heavy defeat in elections which could bring the four-party opposition to power. Exit polls and preliminary forecasts showed Mečiar`s ruling coalition would fall far short of a majority in the 150-seat parliament. Leaders of the main opposition Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) called on three other anti-government parties to join them in talks on Sunday on prospects for forming a government. One poll, conducted by the private MVK agency for Markíza commercial television, gave the combined opposition 64.3 percent combined with 30.1 percent for government parties. Another poll for state television (STV) put government support at 35.7 with the opposition on 56.7. A later forecast based on what MVK said were real results released by agreement with up to 300 of the 5,862 polling stations gave broadly similar conclusions. The current ruling coalition parties polled 47.7 percent at the last election in 1994. If the findings are confirmed, the opposition will be strongly placed to form a government and push through the constitutional changes they say the country needs. Slovakia, once seen as a front runner for membership of the European Union and NATO, has so far
been excluded because of Western concern the Mečiar government`s style is undemocratic. A change of government looks inevitable as the exit polls indicate Mečiar`s main coalition partner, the Workers` Party, failed by a wide margin to cross the five percent threshold necessary to win seats in parliament. The Markíza poll said the SDK had displaced Mečiar`s HZDS as the biggest single party but the STV poll gave HZDS a slim lead. The opposition spans the SDK on the right, the reformed communist Party of the Democratic Left (SDL), with the centre-left Party of Civic Understanding (SOP) and the ethnic Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) in between. The parties have signalled a willingness to form a new administration but have announced no explicit agreement. They have all ruled out cooperation with Mečiar. The prime minister, who has dominated Slovak politics since the country became independent in 1993, says the opposition is too divided to stay together for long. In Slovakia`s sharply polarised political environment, talks on forming a new government could still be protracted. The opposition had raised fears the vote might be rigged but there were no reports of serious problems. Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said their preliminary view was that voting had gone smoothly. "We have been pleased to see the population voting in a calm and orderly manner. We are not aware at this stage of any serious incidents," Helle Degn of the OSCE told journalists.
