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March 01, 2020Slovak voters have delivered a resounding victory to the anti-corruption center-right opposition party OLaNO in a vote dominated by popular anger over the assassination in 2018 of a young journalist who investigated corruption at the highest levels of the state.

Promising immediate anti-corruption measures in the event of a victory, the OLaNO party leader, Igor Matovic, became the spokesperson for the indignation of the voters for the murder of Jan Kuciak and his fiancée and high-level corruption exposed by their dead.

"We will try to create the best government Slovakia has ever had, with the help of other leaders of the democratic opposition," Matovic told reporters claiming the election victory tonight. "It was the death of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova that woke Slovakia up," he added.

Outgoing Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini admitted defeat after partial results showed that OLaNO was six points ahead of Smer-SD, his leftist populist party. Smer-SD has won every election since 2006 and in 2016 obtained 28.3% of the votes. "Congratulations to the winner, good luck," Pellegrini told Matovic, adding: "He has good marketing, but we are interested in how he will manage the assignment."

OLaNO obtained 24.87% of the votes ahead of 18.73% of Smer-SD, while the conservative We are a Family collected 8.34%, the liberal freedom and Solidarity (SaS) 5.67% and "For the People" of ex-president Andrej Kiska has 5.43%. The result indicates that Smer-SD has no acceptable coalition partners, as it refuses to cooperate with the far right of LSNS, which has gotten 8.27%. When asked by journalists about a possible coalition with OLaNO, Pellegrini joked "never say never". "But Igor Matovic needs to be asked," he added. Matovic told reporters that he had agreed on the phone to meet with President Zuzana Caputová "on Monday or Tuesday" and then began talks with leaders of other opposition parties. Caputová told reporters that he would take party leaders' "coalition potential" into account when deciding the position.

Supposedly ordered by an entrepreneur with political ties, the killings of Kuciak and Kusnirova coagulated popular outrage against corruption in public life. The double murder sparked the biggest anti-government protests since Communist times and overthrew Premier Robert Fico, replaced by party colleague Peter Pellegrini, and led political neophyte Caputova, liberal lawyer and anti-corruption activist, to win the presidential vote of last year. Analysts say Matovic, a 46-year-old media expert but unpredictable politician, will become prime minister if he can unify the fragmented opposition. Eccentric self-made man Matovic founded "Common people and independent personalities - OLaNO" ten years ago, but several MPs left the training in the grip of internal struggles.