In Bratislava, foreign residents have a vote – and plenty of opinions

Aidan Anderson, a British national who has called Slovakia home since 2005, has a straightforward demand ahead of Saturday’s local elections in Bratislava: Get rid of a bicycle lane.

“Whoever gets rid of the cycle lane on Vajanského nábrežie that causes so much traffic pain every day and changes it back to a two-lane road will be doing everyone a favour,” he said.

His frustration with traffic on the city’s waterfront is familiar to many commuters. But Anderson is also among a growing number of foreign residents who are eligible to have their say at the ballot box.

A record 48,635 third-country nationals — citizens of countries outside the European Union — are eligible to vote in Slovakia’s local and regional elections on Saturday, up from 27,211 in 2022, an increase of almost 79 percent in four years.

Unlike parliamentary elections, local and regional elections are open to foreign nationals with permanent residence (trvalý pobyt) in Slovakia, allowing them to help choose the officials who govern the towns, cities and regions they call home.

In the Bratislava Region alone, 19,476 third-country nationals are eligible to vote, according to the Interior Ministry.

A further 55,896 EU citizens are registered as residents in Slovakia, although the ministry does not distinguish between permanent and other forms of residence in their case.

How many eligible foreign residents will actually vote remains unknown. But interviews with foreign nationals living in Bratislava reveal concerns ranging from traffic congestion and urban planning to the performance of incumbent politicians.

A dispute over the city’s waterfront