Bratislava, Slovakia - Central Election Committee (UVK) on Monday informed that eighteen political parties have submitted their slates for the June's parliamentary elections.

The parties could be registered only after UVK checks whether all the requirements have been met. One of the conditions for parties to register themselves was a deposit of €16,596. This will be returned to parties that gain at least 2 percent of all votes cast within 30 days of the announcement of the official election results. The non-returned deposits will be added to the state budget.

Apart from four exceptions all the slates have listed 150 candidates what is the maximum number. The smallest number of candidates - only one was submitted by Paliho Kapurkova - a light-hearted political party founded by Pali Vass - train driver from Humenne (Presov region), who claims that he didn't take part in elections for 20 years as there was nobody to vote for so he decided to found his own party.

Last time parliamentary elections took place four years ago and twenty one parties took part in the competition. After it three parties Smer-SD, Slovak National Party and LS-HZDS created a coalition.

(SLOVAKIA TODAY / TASR PHOTO)