Slovakia referendum to ban same-sex marriage fails - see our recommended academic resources

This week a referendum in Slovakia failed to outlaw gay marriages and child adoptions because the vote attracted less than the minimum 50% of voters necessary to make it valid.
Details of the official results can be found on the Slovakian statistical website. This also gives the questions.

Supporters of the referendum included the Conference of Slovak Bishops.
The Christian conservative activism platform CitizenGo, also supported the campaign.

and Pope Francis

human rights organisations criticised the move as homophobic.See the Human rights watch website and Amnesty International 

Other discussion can be seen in local newspaper the Slovak Spectator.

and Visegard 

To what extent is  Slovak society homophobic?

A Eurobarometer poll in 2006  (page 41) found that 19% of Slovaks supported same sex marriage and 81% opposed, while 12% supported and 84% opposed LGBT adoption.

A European Social Survey in 2010 found that 42% of Slovaks believe that “gay men and lesbians should be free to live their own lives as they wish. Eastbook has presented some analysis of trends in Eastern Europe.

Danish Institute for Human Rights reported in 2009 on the situation regarding homophobia and discrimination in Slovakia on sexual orientation grounds with the conclusion attitudes were largely negative.

For a comparative perspective look at surveys and reports on LGBT rights and homophobia from FRA and ILGA Europe. which has a press statement on the recent referendum.

Slovak elections 2012

A parliamentary election took place in Slovakia on 10 March 2012 to elect 150 members of the Národná rada. The election followed the fall of Prime Minister Iveta Radičová's Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party-led coalition in October 2011 over a no confidence vote her government failed because of its support for the European Financial Stability Fund.
The statistics Bureau of Slovakia - recorded the official result and voter turnout figures.
The European Election database- enables you to compare this with results since 1990 at both national and regional levels.
For background on the political system see the Ministry of the Interior website.
If you are looking for English Language material. A good starting point is the ACE project which links to key news stories and reports covering the most recent and some past elections. It includes election observation reports from the OSCEFor recent polls see Focus research
The Slovak Spectator has covered these and other stories in English.
Other Slovakia news services include: SME
ujszo.com
Etrend - economics news.
Finally try UCL SSEES twitter feed for comment and links to resources. The library also maintains a good Internet guide to resources about Slovakia.

Slovakia elections - who won?

According to unofficial results released by the Slovak Statistical Bureau yesterday, Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Slovakia were won by Slovak PM Robert Fico’s left-wing Social Democrats
articles and discussion of the election outcome can be found in the following news resources -
Spectator
Radio Slovakia International This includes a collection of articles on the elections
Some commemntators have claimed that the exit polls did not reflect the final result. You can check some polls on the FOCUS research site. English language translations and summaries are on the Angus Reid site
Other useful sources of information on the state of democracy are
IVO - the institute for Public Affairs. This has some free access to papers and reports about politics and foreign policy in Slovakia

Transparency International Slovakia has recent surveys and news stories on political, social and economic corruption. Although much of the site is not offered in English.
More historic materials on democratization programmes can be found on the NDI website
finally you might like to take a look at the OSCE election observation mission to the 2010 elections. At present this has a preliminary needs assessment but fuller reports are likely to be aded in the near future.