Referendum chaos in Slovakia

Chaos overshadowed the start of voting yesterday in two referendums which Western diplomats said would test whether post-communist Slovakia was ready to join the West.

Slovaks were to vote on whether they want their country to join Nato, and whether the president should be directly elected by citizens, instead of by parliament. But the situation was thrown into confusion by a row over ballots, tied to a long-running feud between the president and the prime minister. It led to some polling stations lacking any ballots at all, while others had voting slips without the presidential question. Reuters - Bratislava