Slovakia Holds Early General Elections

Slovaks vote in an early general election Saturday, which is expected to bring victory to the left-wing party of ex-Prime Minister Robert Fico following a corruption scandal that shook the right-wing rivals.

Surveys cited by local news agencies show that voters are determined to punish their leaders from the scandal-hit Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU).

Opinion polls show Fico's SMER Social Democracy is likely to win about 39% of the vote and take 75 seats, just one short of a majority in the 150-member parliament, the BBC reports.

Prime Minister Iveta Radicova's center-right SDKU, on the other hand, is expected to win the support of slightly over 5%, the threshold to enter Parliament.

Analysts predict a low turnout as a result of the political scandal.

The affair broke out in December, after secret service wiretaps of alleged meetings between top politicians and leaders of a local financial group in the period 2005-2006 leaked on the Internet in December.

The so-called Gorilla scandal unveiled a widespread corruption network with the serious involvement of politicians from the current government.

All 26 parties competing in Saturday's election, among them formations implicated in the "Gorilla" affair, have pledged to combat corruption.

Saturday's vote takes place two years into the government of Radicova, the country's first female Prime Minister.

The election follows a failed no confidence vote in October 2011 over the Cabinet's support for the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).

Radicova plans to quit politics once a new government is formed.

The vote on March 10 is the eighth democratic election for members of parliament in Slovakia since the fall of communism in 1989.

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