June 15 (SeeNews) - The office of Slovenia's president, Borut Pahor, said on Friday the maiden session of the country's parliament will be held June 22, following early general elections on June 3.
Pahor was officially notified of the results of the June 3 election by the election commission on Friday, the president's office said in a statement.
"I expect that parliamentary groups will be formed by the end of this month. As soon as I am formally informed of this, I will hold discussions with the heads of the parliamentary groups on the appointment of a mandate-holder to form a new government," Pahor said.
He added that he expects these talks to be held at the end of June or early July.
The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) led by former prime minister Janez Jansa won the early general election with 24.92% of the votes, giving it 25 seats in the 90-member chamber, the election commission said citing final results on Thursday.
With 100% of the votes counted, newcomer List of Marjan Sarec (LMS) won 12.60%, the Social Democrats (SD) has 9.93% and the Modern Center Party (SMC) of caretaker prime minister Miro Cerar garnered 9.75%, according to the official results.
Cerar resigned in March, after the Supreme Court annulled the outcome of last year’s referendum which backed the upgrade of the Divaca–Koper railway - his government’s biggest investment project. Cerar's cabinet has since carried on in a caretaker role. In April, Slovenia's president Borut Pahor called early parliamentary elections for June 3.
The Left party collected 9.33% of the votes, New Slovenia - Christian Democrats (NSi) won 7.16%, Alenka Bratusek Party (SAB) has 5.11%, the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) was backed by 4.93%, the Slovenian National Party (SNS) by 4.17%, while two seats are secured for MPs representing the Italian and Hungarian minorities.
SDS will have 25 seats in parliament, while LMS will occupy 13, SD and SMC will have ten each, Left will have nine representatives, NSi seven, SAB and DeSUS five each and SNS four.
Prior to the elections all parties but NSi and SNS said they refuse to work with SDS, hence forming a majority is expected to be tricky. Analysts are hinting that the left-leaning parties could have an easier time forming a government, which they predict could be led by Marjan Sarec.
Pahor, however, said on Friday he thinks its fair that the leader of the winning party gets the first opportunity to form a government.
Voter turnout was 52.64%.
Slovenia's 90-member National Assembly is elected for a four-year term through the proportional representation system, with a 4.0% entry threshold.
The country of two million people joined the EU in 2004 and became the 13th member of the Eurozone in January 2007.
Slovenia gained independence from the former Yugoslav Federation in 1991.