 A few days before the 1998 election Sládek was arrested and was in prison during the voting, his missing vote enabling the re-election of Václav Havel, who obtained exactly the necessary number of votes.The internal problems of the party and the populist campaign of Miloš Zeman, leader of the Social Democrats, led to a loss of support for SPR-RSČ, and in the 1998 legislative elections the party received 3.9% of votes and no parliament seats.The decline of the party accelerated and in 2001 it was forcefully dissolved due to financial irregularities.