PHOTO: Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images. Zuzana Caputová, Candidate in the upcoming Presidential elections in Slovakia
Lawyer Zuzana Caputová won the largest share of votes in Slovakia’s presidential ballot on March 16, making her the front-runner ahead of a second round later this month.
Lawyer Zuzana Caputová, a newcomer to politics who has run a campaign focused on tackling corruption, won 40.6 percent of the vote, ahead of government candidate and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefcoviv on 18.7 percent, according to the national statistics office. The two will face off in the final round on March 30.
Voters’ support for Caputová reflects the electorate’s frustration with Slovakia’s ruling Smer party, which has been the target of anti-government protests following the murder a year ago of journalist Ján Kuciak.
Caputová, 45, has not previously held office. The vice chairwoman of the recently formed pro-EU Progressive Slovakia party, she ran a campaign under the slogan “Let’s fight evil together,”
In 2016 Caputová won an environmental prize after campaigning in her hometown of Pezinok, near Bratislava, to shut down a hazardous garbage dump. Caputová would be the first woman to hold the position in Slovakia if she wins in two weeks’ time.
PHOTO: Mustafasentop.com
Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Sentop expressed his grief over the Christchurch terrorist attacks in a letter to Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) members. In it, he wrote: “We have learned with great sorrow that the terrorist attacks against innocent worshippers during the Friday prayer in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, caused many losses and left many wounded.”
He then expressed his concern on the rise of Islamophobia: “We are deeply concerned about the increasing Islamophobia all over the world that manifested itself once again today. These massacres show us, if not addressed, Islamophobia will go well beyond the rhetoric and threaten every society that will have the will to live together in peace.” He then strongly condemned the “heinous attacks against innocent people” as the President of APA, and stated that members of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly “stand in solidarity with the families of those who lost their lives and extend our condolences to the relatives and people of New Zealand”.
PHOTO: KUNA. Kuwait's National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim (left) meets with Chairman of the Qatari Shura Council Ahmad bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud (right)
On March 14, Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim held a meeting with the Chairman of the Qatari Shura Council Ahmad bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud. The two sides discussed unifying stances toward files, due to be addressed at the Inter-Parliametary Union (IPU), scheduled to convene in Doha in April. Kuwaiti and Qatari legislators attended the meeting.
PHOTO: State Duma. Chairman of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin (right)
The Chairman of the State Duma Viacheslav Volodin urged to oblige Ukraine to compensate for Crimea’s losses. He stressed that Ukraine treated Crimea very dishonorably: “The fundamental rights of citizens were violated: the right to language, the right to education in their native language, it destroyed the economy of Crimea and Sevastopol, in fact, exercised annexation.”
Speaker Volodin then appealed to European parliamentary structures to force Ukraine to compensate for the losses of Crimea, which the region incurred while being a part of Ukraine. “Based on the voiced proposal, let’s instruct our specialized committees, together with the relevant committees of the State Council of Crimea, to study this issue, to analyze, calculate how much the Crimean economy lost due to the destructive policy of Ukraine, financial loss suffered by the Crimeans, and what rights were violated.”
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)
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