The National Council of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter “National Council”) is the sole constitutional and legislative body of the Slovak Republic. It is the body of state authority and the status of other state bodies in Slovakia is derived from its primary status. As an elected body it represents the sovereignty of the state and of the citizens. It has an important role in the formation of the Slovak Republic as a modern and democratic state, as well as in the implementation of social and ecologically oriented market economy. Members of the Parliament are elected by universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot. There are 150 Members of Parliament elected for a four-year term. A citizen who has the right to vote, has reached the age of 21 and has permanent residence on the territory of the Slovak Republic may be elected a Member of Parliament. Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal, equal, and direct suffrage by secret ballot.
The legislature of the Slovak Republic, the National Council, is composed of 150 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a four-year term of office. National Council seats are filled by proportional representation (PR) in a single, nationwide electoral constituency, where political parties or coalitions of two or more parties submit lists of candidates. Voters may indicate preferences for up to four candidates in one list.
National Council seats are distributed on a nationwide basis by the Hagenbach-Bischoff method. However, in order to participate in the distribution of National Council seats, a party must obtain at least five percent of the vote, while coalitions of two to three parties and four or more parties are required to obtain at least seven and ten percent of the vote, respectively. An electoral quota - the republic electoral number - is calculated by dividing the total number of valid votes polled by qualifying lists by 151 - the number of National Council seats plus one. The number of votes won by each qualifying list is then divided by the electoral quota, and the result of this division, disregarding fractions, is the initial number of seats obtained by each list. Any seats that remain unallocated after the application of the electoral quota are distributed according to the largest remainder method.
| The Chamber of Deputies | |
|---|---|
| Number of seats | 150 seats |
| Constituency boundaries | Party List PR (Closed List), Hagenbach-Bischoff method. Each elector can cast four preferential votes for candidates with respect to the same list. |
| Length of mandate | 4 years |
| Distribution of seats | Party List PR (Closed List), Hagenbach-Bischoff method. Each elector can cast four preferential votes for candidates with respect to the same list. |
| Vacancies | Filled by substitutes chosen at same time as titular members |
| Entitlement to vote | Age 18 Slovak citizen Permanent residence Disqualifications: legal incapacity, imprisonment, limitation on personal freedom for health purposes |
| Eligibility for election | Age 21 Qualified voters Incompatibilities: President of the Republic, judges, public prosecutor, police and career military officers, prison or judicial guards |
| Nomination of candidates | Nomination by parties, each of which must have a minimum of 10,000 members unless it had representatives in the outgoing legislatur |
Powers of the National Council are determined by its constitutional status within the system of exercise of power. It is divided into:
The National Council considers and approves the Constitution, constitutional statutes and other laws and it controls their upholding. Its legal acts regulate relationships that arise in all spheres of social, political and economic life of the Slovak Republic. The method of law-making and the details of procedure of the drafting of laws, debate on them and their form is laid down in the Legislative Rules of Law-making, published in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic as item no. 19/1997 Coll.
Draft laws may be introduced by committees, Members of Parliament and the Government. The legislative process in the Parliament is carried out in three readings.
State bodies, which the Parliament creates, or participates in their creation, are answerable to it. The Parliament exercises its power of oversight primarily towards the Slovak Government and its members
Parliamentary oversight in relation to the Cabinet lies in the right of the deputies to raise interpellations, suggestions, comments and questions. The National Council endorses budgets of other legal entities it had created and discusses their implementation.
It debates the reports of the Supreme Audit Office Of the Slovak Republic on the results of its audits and the reports of the Slovak Central Bank on monetary development and the results of its management.
Power of creation includes the power to establish both its own bodies and state bodies as well as to participate in the establishment of other state bodies. In compliance with the above-mentioned:
The National Council exercises its powers in domestic and foreign policy in the following manner:
