Slovaks started voting on Saturday in a parliamentary election closely fought between former leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has pledged to end military aid for neighbouring Ukraine, and pro-Western liberals.
Final opinion polls showed the two parties in dead heat, with the winner expected to get the first chance to try to form a government to replace the caretaker administration running the country of 5.5 million since May.
A Progresivne Slovensko government would stay the course on foreign policy, keeping Slovakia's strong backing for Ukraine and putting the country in a pro-integration and liberal camp in the EU on issues such as majority voting to make the bloc more flexible, green policies and LGBT rights. Fico has ridden on dissatisfaction with a bickering centre-right coalition whose government collapsed last year, triggering this election a half-year early.
Fico has pledged to end military supplies to Ukraine and to strive for peace talks. This is a line close to that of Hungary's leader Viktor Orban but rejected by Ukraine and its allies, who say this would only encourage Russia.But Fico was also a pragmatic leader in the past, which foreign diplomats and analysts say could tame his foreign policy turn.
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