Members of Parliament are elected representatives of the citizens of the Slovak Republic. They exercise their mandates individually and according to their conscience and conviction. No orders bind them.
Any citizen who has the right to vote, has attained 21 years of age and has permanent residency in the Slovak Republic is eligible to be elected to the Parliament.
Members of Parliament assume their duties upon their election. An MP participating in the meeting of the Parliament for the first time takes the following oath: “I swear on my honour and conscience allegiance to the Slovak Republic. I will exercise my obligations dutifully in the interest of its citizens. I will abide by the Constitution and all other laws and I will make every effort to implement them.” An MP assumes his seat and starts to exercise his mandate upon the delivery of the oath. Any refusal to take the oath or any reservation thereof results in the loss of the mandate.
The mandate of a Member of Parliament is incompatible with any of the following offices: the President of the Republic, a judge, a public prosecutor, the Public Defender of Rights, a member of the armed forces and a member of the armed corps. If a Member of Parliament has been appointed member of the Government, Deputy Minister, Head of the Office of the President or Head of a central body of state administration, his mandate does not terminate within this period but is not be exercised and a substitute takes his place.
The principal rights of an MP include:
- The right to initiate legislation
- The right to raise interpellations and to question members of the Slovak Government
- The right to request from state organs information necessary for his work
- The right to take part in the debates of the Parliament and of bodies in which he had been elected, and to vote on all issues discussed in them
- To elect and to be elected
No Member of Parliament may be prosecuted for his voting in the Parliament or in its committees, not even after expiration of his or her mandate. For statements presented in duration of the post in the Parliament or in its body is subject solely to disciplinary powers of the Parliament. An MP may not be prosecuted, sanctioned by any disciplinary measure or held in pre-trial detention without approval of the Parliament. If the Parliament denies granting of such approval, the prosecution or pre-trial detention of an MP is precluded during the term of his mandate. In such case, the period of limitation does not lapse in duration of the mandate. A Member of Parliament may resign his or her mandate. His or her mandate expires on the date of effectiveness of a judgment under which a Member of Parliament was convicted of a wilful criminal offence or under which a Member of Parliament was convicted of a criminal offence and in his or her case the Court did not decide on a probationary suspension of the imprisonment sentence.
If an MP requests so, his employer is obliged to grant him leave of absence during the exercise of his post in the Parliament. In this case he is not entitled to wage compensation from the employer.
Member of Parliament receives a salary amounting to three times the average monthly salary of a worker in the national economy of Slovakia, rounded up to the nearest SKK 100. MPs shall receive their salary starting on the first day of the month in which they took the oath stipulated by the Constitution. They also receive the salary for five months after their parliamentary mandate had expired.
For the exercise of posts in the Parliament and its bodies, which are laid down by the law, an MP is entitled to a bonus. Also for the compensation of expenses related to the exercise of the office of an MP, MPs are entitled to lump-sum reimbursement, the amount of which is specified by a resolution of the Parliament. For the exercise of his mandate an MP is provided with an adequately equipped office. The Chancellery of the Parliament provides the MP with an assistant charged with carrying out specialized as well as administrative work related to the operation of an MP’s office. The Chancellery of the Parliament meets the costs of running an MP’s office as well as the remuneration of MP’s assistant, in compliance with the resolutions of the Parliament.
If, within a single month, an MP is, without valid excuse, absent from at least two days of debate of a parliamentary session or meeting of a committee to which he had been elected, he loses one half of each of the following: his salary, bonus and lump-sum reimbursement which he is to receive the following month. If within one month an MP is absent from at least four days of debate of a parliamentary session or meetings of a committee to which he had been elected, without a due excuse, he loses entitlement for any part of his salary, bonus or lump-sum reimbursement, which he should have received the following month.