2008 Slovenian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 21 September 2008 to elect the 90 deputies of the National Assembly. Seventeen parties filed to run in the election, including all nine parliamentary parties. A plurality of seats was won by the Social Democrats, which subsequently formed a coalition government together with Zares, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia.

2008 Slovenian parliamentary election

← 2004 21 September 2008 2011 →
88 of the 90 seats in the National Assembly
Turnout	63.10% ( 2.46 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Borut Pahor Janez Janša Gregor Golobič Party SD SDS Zares Last election 10 seats 29 seats New Seats won 29 28 9 Seat change 19 1 New Popular vote 320,248 307,735 98,526 Percentage 30.45% 29.26% 9.37%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Karl Erjavec Zmago Jelinčič Bojan Šrot Party DeSUS SNS SLS Last election 4 seats 6 seats 7 seats Seats won 7 5 5 Seat change 3 1 2 Popular vote 78,353 56,832 54,809 Percentage 7.45% 5.40% 5.21%   Seventh party   Leader Katarina Kresal Party LDS Last election 23 seats Seats won 5 Seat change 18 Popular vote 54,771 Percentage 5.21%
Prime Minister before election Janez Janša SDS Prime Minister after election Borut Pahor SD

Electoral system

Of the 90 seats, 88 are elected using the D'Hondt method of list proportional representation, with a 4% threshold.^[1]

Opinion polls

Polling Firm	Date	SD	SDS	Zares	SNS	LDS	DeSUS	SLS	NSi	Others
Ninamedia[2]	15–17 July 2008	25.7%	22.4%	8.4%	6.3%	7.2%	4.5%	1.7%	1.5%	22.3%
Ninamedia[3]	20–22 May 2008	22.1%	18.9%	8.6%	6.8%	6.6%	4.2%	2.4%	1.9%	37.1%
Delo[4]	26–29 May 2008	19.2%	15.2%	6.3%	5.9%	4.7%	3.0%	2.2%	2.1%	41.4%

Exit polls

According to exit polls, conducted by the Interstat agency for Radiotelevizija Slovenija, Social Democrats (SD) won the most votes, 32.02%. Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) finished second with 28.04%. Other parties followed: Zares 10.05%, Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) 6.74%, Slovenian National Party (SNS) 5.58%, Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) 5.21%, and Slovenian People's Party (SLS) with Youth Party of Slovenia (SMS) 4.28%. New Slovenia (NSi) and Lipa, the parliamentary parties before the elections, did not reach the 4% limit.^[1]

According to exit polls, conducted by the Mediana agency for POP TV, the results are following: SD 31.5%, SDS 27.7%, Zares 9.7%, DeSUS 7.6%, LDS 6.1%, SNS 5.8%, SLS-SMS 4.2%. The margin was not reached by NSi (2.6%) and Lipa (2.3%).^[5]

Results

A total of 17 parties contested the election, including all 9 political parties that already held seats in the National Assembly.^[6] The Social Democrats won the most seats with 29 elected deputies, far below a majority of 45. The Social Democrats eventually came to an agreement with Zares, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia to form a coalition government.^[7][8]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Social Democrats	320,248	30.45	29	+19
	Slovenian Democratic Party	307,735	29.26	28	–1
	Zares	98,526	9.37	9	New
	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia	78,353	7.45	7	+3
	Slovenian National Party	56,832	5.40	5	–1
	Slovenian People's Party–Youth Party	54,809	5.21	5	–2
	Liberal Democracy of Slovenia	54,771	5.21	5	–18
	New Slovenia – Christian People's Party	35,774	3.40	0	–9
	Lipa	19,068	1.81	0	New
	List for Justice and Development	5,897	0.56	0	New
	Greens of Slovenia	5,367	0.51	0	0
	Christian Democratic Party	4,724	0.45	0	New
	List for Clear Drinking Water	4,140	0.39	0	New
	Party of Slovenian People	2,629	0.25	0	0
	Green Coalition: Green Party and Green Progress	2,230	0.21	0	New
	Forward Slovenia	475	0.05	0	0
	Acacias	249	0.02	0	New
Hungarian and Italian national communities				2	0
Total		1,051,827	100.00	90	0
Valid votes		1,051,827	98.26
Invalid/blank votes		18,597	1.74
Total votes		1,070,424	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,696,437	63.10
Source: DVK

See also

• Patria case