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In May 2003, Slovakia produced the highest percentage of ‘yes’ votes ever in an EU accession referendum, although turnout was only just above the 50 per cent necessary for it to be valid. After deep political polarisation in the 1990s, a consensus had been formed on the overriding need for EU membership, which was supported by all parliamentary political parties. It was the first Slovak referendum ever where not only the answer to the question, but also the propriety of holding the referendum, were not the subject of bitter political argument. However, despite impressive civic voter participation campaigns in the two previous national elections, a low level of contestation made it hard to mobilise all pro-EU voters yet again for the referendum. Lack of leadership, and the hope that turnout would drop below 50 per cent, also encouraged the Eurosceptic minority to abstain.
Notes
Slovak sources commonly give the ‘yes’ vote as 92.46 per cent, but more than one per cent of ballots cast were invalid, and the matching ‘no’ vote is only 6.20 per cent.
This was documented in monitoring of electronic media by the OSCE/ODIHR Election Mission to Slovakia, MEMO 98 and the Slovak Syndicate of Journalists. The pro-government daily newspaper Slovenská republika was also highly critical.
This was most noticeable in material produced by the ‘Niejenámtojedno’ campaign of the NGO Občianské oko (Civic Eye), which included a calendar with the two dates highlighted.
The Institute of Public Opinion Research of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (ÚVVM pri ŠÚ SR) and the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO) have regularly published results of public opinion polls on the subject, more recent ones available at www.statistics.sk and www.ivo.sk.
The 1992 Slovak elections (turnout 84 per cent) have been omitted when calculating averages, as the two countries have otherwise always held elections in the same years. For turnout figures, see Birch (2003: 60–63), which gives an average turnout for all post-communist elections up to 2002 of 70.63 per cent.
The story was reported widely in the media. See for example Sme, 25 April 2003 and Pravda, 26 April 2003.
Compare, for example, his interview with the pro-HZDS daily newspaper Nový deň ‘Po neplatnom referende by mala vláda odstúpi (‘The government should resign after an invalid referendum’), 25 April 2003, and ‘Mečiar: Pád vlády by bol porážkou všetkých’ (‘Mečiar: The fall of the government would be a defeat for everyone’) in the anti-HZDS Sme, 10 May 2003. 
The media-monitoring NGO Memo 98 also criticised the lack of broad discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of EU membership in the electronic media both before and during the campaign, and lack of balance was criticised by the (Slovak) Council for Broadcasting and Retransmission. See Memo 98, Integrácia SR do Európskej únie vo vybraných elektronických médiách (1. apríla 2003 – 30. apríla 2003), www.memo98.sk; and www.rada-rtv.sk/17/17.17.html.
The campaign leaflet Výhody a nevýhody členstva v Európskej únii is a good example of this.