2004 Slovak presidential election

2004 Slovak presidential election
Turnout	47.94% (first round) 25.95pp; 43.50% (second round) 31.95pp
President before election; Rudolf Schuster; Independent	Elected President ; Ivan Gašparovič; HZD

Presidential elections were held in Slovakia on 3 April 2004, with a second round on 17 April.^[1] Although former Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar received the most votes in the first round, he was defeated by Ivan Gašparovič in the run-off.^[2]

Eduard Kukan, who had led the opinion polling prior to the elections, was surprisingly eliminated in the first round, narrowly beaten into third place by Gašparovič. Gašparovič later admitted that he had not expect to qualify for the second round, and on first round election night he had gone home to sleep and only found out about his success when he was woken up by phone calls from friends.^[3]

Incumbent president Rudolf Schuster finished fourth with just 7% of the vote. He subsequently retired from politics.^[4]

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1747 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ Nohlen & Stöver, pp1755-1756
^ "Voľby 2004: Gašparovič doma spal, úspech nečakal". Sme.sk. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
^ TA3, TA3.COM (4 April 2004). "Televízia TA3 | Rudolf Schuster bol prvým priamo zvoleným prezidentom". TA3.com (in Slovak). Retrieved 9 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1747 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, pp1755-1756

[3] "Voľby 2004: Gašparovič doma spal, úspech nečakal". Sme.sk. Retrieved 10 August 2016.

[4] TA3, TA3.COM (4 April 2004). "Televízia TA3 | Rudolf Schuster bol prvým priamo zvoleným prezidentom". TA3.com (in Slovak). Retrieved 9 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

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