A populist party led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico has won Slovakia's parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results released early Sunday.
The country's Statistical Office announced the preliminary results at 6 a.m. local time (0300GMT) after counting 99.2% of ballots, with Robert Fico's leftist SMER (Direction - Social Democracy) party receiving 23.3% of the vote.
Progressive Slovakia finished second with 16.98%, followed by Voice-SD (14.98%), the coalition of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities and the Christian Union (9.02%), the Christian Democratic Movement (6.91%), the Freedom and Solidarity Party (6.18%), and the Slovak National Party (5.67%).
The Saturday's election turnout was 68.06%, the local TASR news agency reported, citing the Statistical Office.
While not a landslide, SMER's result is better than expected. Last public opinion polls suggested that the party could finish the race ahead of its rivals by a narrow margin.
Fico, a pro-Kremlin figure, is expected to begin talks with other political parties to form a coalition government, the news agency said.
With seven political parties reaching the 5% threshold needed to enter the parliament, coalition negotiations will almost certainly include multiple players and could be lengthy.
Fico, 59, pledged to end military supplies to Ukraine and strive for peace talks, which was rejected by Ukraine and its allies, claiming that would only encourage Russian aggression.
He was forced to step down as premier following the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak in 2018.
Kuciak was investigating corruption in Slovakia, and it is believed that his murder was motivated by his work as a journalist.
Fico, who served as prime minister in Slovakia from 2012 to 2018, is against tightening sanctions against Russia, particularly in the energy field.
Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million, has been run by a caretaker administration of technocrats since May.
