Poll: Smer Winner, PS Close Runner-up

Bratislava, September 23 (TASR) - Had a general election taken place in mid-September, it would have been won by Smer-SD on 22.8 percent of the votes, according to a recent poll carried out by AKO agency on behalf of television channel Joj 24. Smer would have been closely followed by Progressive Slovakia (PS) on 22.4 percent, with Voice-SD finishing third on 15.1 percent of the votes. Other parties to make it into Parliament would have included the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) on 6.8 percent, Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) on 6.4 percent and Republic on 5.6 percent. The Slovak National Party (SNS), currently forming part of the governing coalition, would have failed to make it on 4.9 percent, as would the opposition extra-parliamentary Democrats party also on 4.9 percent. The poll was carried out on a sample of 1,000 respondents between September 10 and September 16. zel/mcs