Slovak president to give election winner mandate to form government

(Reuters) - Slovak President Zuzana Caputova said on Sunday she would give a mandate to the country's election winner on Monday to form a new government, signaling former prime minister Robert Fico would receive first shot at putting together a coalition.

Caputova did not mention by name Fico's SMER-SSD party, which campaigned on pledges to end military aid to Ukraine and came first with 22.94% of the vote with results from 99.98% of voting districts counted on Sunday.

Liberal party Progresivne Slovensko (Progressive Slovakia, PS) came in with 17.96%, with five other parties also winning seats.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn, Editing by Jason Hovet)