NGOs Demand Review of District Office's Decision Concerning Interior Minister

Bratislava, October 11 (TASR) - NGOs Let's Stop Corruption, Transparency International Slovakia and Memo98 have asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to review a decision of Bratislava District Office, which ruled that Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) did not violate the Election Campaign Act by releasing a paid post on a social network to the detriment of one of the candidates in the most recent presidential election. According to Transparency International Slovakia head Michal Pisko, this case is an example of third-party support for a candidate. "We think that this conduct is all the more serious because it was perpetrated by the interior minister, who is in charge of the ministry that is supposed to oversee the rules and fairness of campaigns," Pisko stressed. Lubomir Danko, an attorney with the Let's Stop Corruption Foundation, opined that the district office that assessed the case took into account the old wording of the law and a court's overturned ruling. The office, he said, argued that a social network is not a mass means of communication, so the campaign rules do not apply to it. "Since then, the legislation has changed, and today election campaigning is prohibited for third parties in any manner. It is not at all limited to the mass information space," pointed out Danko. Head of Memo98 Rastislav Kuzel announced that he will also file a complaint with the State Commission for Elections and Control of Political Party Financing. zel/df