Accession of Substitutes

(1) If during the electoral term, a mandate is left vacant, a substitute of the same political party or coalition shall fill the vacancy according to the order, in which they were provided in the list of candidates. However, if preferential votes have been applied in the ballot paper, the candidate with the highest number of preferential votes among the candidates, who obtained at least three percent of preferential votes, shall fill the vacancy.

(2) If there is no substitute of the same political party or coalition, the mandate shall remain vacant until the end of the electoral term.

(3) If the political party has been dissolved, the vacancy shall not be filled by any substitute and the mandate shall remain vacant until the end of the electoral term.

(4) If the mandate of a Member of the National Council is not applied, a substitute shall take over the mandate.

(5) The accession of the substitute shall be declared by the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic within 15 days after date, on which the mandate was left vacant or when the fact pursuant to Paragraph 4 comes into existence. The Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic shall issue a certificate of becoming Member of the National Council to the substitute, showing the date, from which the substitute becomes Member of the National Council; the certificate of the substitute pursuant to Paragraph 4 shall also contain information that their mandate of Member of the National Council shall only last during the discharge of the function by the Member of the National Council, whose non-applied mandate the substitute takes over, or only during the imprisonment of the Member of the National Council, whose non-applied mandate the substitute takes over. After the expiry of the substitute’s mandate, the substitute shall remain in the same list of candidates and in the original order.