Viktor Orbán has been at the head of Hungary for twelve years. Today the Hungarians are electing a new parliament – the OSCE is sending 200 election observers.
- For Viktor Orbán* it will be at the Hungary election eng. Polls for Hungary election 2022 make the opposition leader Peter Mark-Zay Hope.
- In Hungary, the polling stations close at 7 p.m., meaningful partial results are not expected until after 11 p.m.
- All developments to Parliamentary elections in Hungary you find in News-Ticker.
+++ 7.25 p.m.: Polling stations in Hungary officially close at 7pm, but Euronews reports that some polling stations may stay open longer – those who queued before 7pm should still be able to vote.
+++ 7.15 p.m.: The parliamentary elections in Hungary are being monitored by 200 OSCE election observers, but there are still suspicions of election manipulation: near the Romanian city of Târgu Mureș, a sack was filled and partly burned Hungarian ballot found, reports merkur.de with reference to the portal telex.hu, which is critical of the government. On some of the openly visible ballot papers, crosses were recognizable for opposition parties, it is said.
+++ 7.03 p.m.: The polling stations for the parliamentary elections in Hungary should now be closed. The extrapolations are now starting, the first meaningful partial results are not expected before 11 p.m.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary: polling stations close at 7 p.m
+++ 6.25 p.m.: At 5 p.m., turnout in Hungary was 62.92 percent, according to the Hungarian electoral office – 4,840,928 eligible voters had cast their votes by then. The polling stations for the parliamentary elections in Hungary close at 7 p.m., but meaningful partial results should not be available until after 11 p.m.
+++ 4.10 p.m.: As of 1 p.m., voter turnout in Hungary’s parliamentary elections was 40 percent, 2.3 percentage points below the 2018 turnout at the same time, according to the Hungarian Electoral Bureau. At that time, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party won just over two-thirds of the 199 seats in parliament with 49 percent of the vote. A turnout of more than 70 percent is expected for the 2022 election.
Hungary: Viktor Orbán is confident of victory – opponent has a broad alliance behind him
+++ 3.15 p.m.: In the elections in Hungary, experts are assuming a high turnout of over 70 percent. The background may also be the unprecedented election campaign that Orbán’s right-wing nationalist Fidesz party and the opposition alliance led by conservative Peter Marki-Zay had fought.
Marki-Zay has declared war on the “illiberal” democracy shaped by Orbán. He has a broad alliance behind him, ranging from the right-wing Jobbik party to the Liberals to the Greens and the Social Democrats. By joining forces, the opposition parties hope to oust Orbán, who has headed the government without interruption since 2010.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary: polling stations close at 7 p.m
+++ 2.15 p.m.: The polling stations will remain open until 7 p.m. According to government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, meaningful partial results should only be available after 11 p.m. The leader of the opposition alliance, the conservative Peter Marki-Zay, also voted in Budapest. In front of supporters, Marki-Zay was confident on Sunday. In view of “twelve years of brainwashing” carried out by the Fidesz party, the election was a “tough fight”. But the opposition alliance is facing a “victory”.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary: Viktor Orbán has voted – OSCE sends 200 election observers
+++ 10.45 a.m.: “I’m confident,” said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in office for twelve years, in front of his polling station in the Zugliget district of Budapest after casting his vote. “It’s a strange choice because (…) because of the war (in Ukraine) we have to deal with issues of war and peace,” he added to journalists.
+++ 9.50 a.m.: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán cast his vote with his wife at a polling station in Budapest on Sunday morning, AFP reporters reported. For the first time, around 200 election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will monitor the ballot, which is highly unusual for an election in an EU country.
Update from Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, 7:30 a.m.: Parliamentary elections began in Hungary on Sunday. 8.2 million eligible voters are called upon to cast their vote. Nine nationwide party lists and 658 direct candidates are applying for 199 mandates. The election will be decided between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s right-wing nationalist Fidesz party and an alliance of the six most important opposition parties. The latest polls put the Fidesz party ahead of the opposition alliance by a few percentage points. Polling stations close at 7 p.m. The preliminary final result is expected in the late evening.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary: the population seems divided
Update from Saturday, April 2nd, 2022, 4:07 p.m.: The Hungarian population appears to be divided in view of the forthcoming parliamentary elections on Sunday, April 03, 2022. According to a Spiegel report, supporters of the current head of government Viktor Orbán and his party Fidesz claim that the right-wing populist is more committed to families than anyone else and defends the country. Opponents of the president, on the other hand, accuse him and his party of having destroyed democracy with their right-wing policies. However, whether there will be enough citizens voting against Orbán, who has been in office for 12 years, is uncertain – it will be a close race.
Parliamentary elections in Hungary: Things could get tight for Viktor Orbán
First report from Friday, April 1st, 2022: Budapest – Parliamentary elections will take place in Hungary on Sunday, April 3, 2022. Four years ago, the governing alliance of Fidesz and KDNP, which has been in power since 2010, was confirmed in office with a two-thirds majority of mandates. The alliance around Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will also appear this year. This time, however, a head-to-head race is expected.
| date | Sunday 03 April 2022 |
| Current Prime Minister | Viktor Orbán |
| Strongest opponent | Peter Mark-Zay |
| seats in parliament | 199 |
| constituencies | 106 |
| election period | 4 years |
| voting system | Mixture of majority and proportional representation |
Viktor Orbán has been Prime Minister of Hungary for twelve years. The right-wing populist is the longest-serving head of government in a member state I*. He could lose power in this year’s general election. The hope of the opposition is Péter Márki-Zay. The pro-European and conservative mayor of the city of Hódmezővásárhely was initially considered an outsider in the primary elections, but in October 2021 he was elected the lead candidate of an alliance that brought together left, right and centrist parties under the name “United for Hungary” (Egységben Magyarországért – EM ) brings together. Márki-Zay said at the time that “the way out is neither right nor left, but upwards”.
Ungarn-Wahl 2022: Péter Márki-Zay fordert Viktor Orbán heraus
Orbán could indeed be in trouble. His friendly relationship with Russia Wladimir Putin* and the demand that Hungary should withdraw from the Ukraine conflict* keeping out does not go down well with many eligible voters in the country. The relationship with the EU has also been badly damaged for years: Orbán always rails against Brussels. The incumbent prime minister is seen as authoritarian and anti-liberal.
The right-wing extremists in Hungary are also in focus. After splitting off from the right-wing Jobbik party following the 2018 election, the new party “Mi Hazánk Mozgalom” (“Movement Our Homeland”) is emerging with leading candidate László Toroczkai. Since 2013, the ultra-nationalist Toroczkai has been mayor of Ásotthalom, a small town on the border with Serbia. The party’s split from Toroczkai paved the way for Jobbik to work with other opposition parties.
First Projections and results for the Hungarian election* are expected after the polls close at 7 p.m. in the evening. Out of fear of manipulation, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) sent around 200 observers to Hungary. This is only the second time they have been used in an election in the EU. In addition to the general election, four government-requested referendums on alleged “LGBTQ propaganda” are also scheduled. The questions relate to the Child Protection Act and are as follows:
- Are you in favor of allowing children in public schools to take classes on sexual orientation without parental consent?
- Are you in favor of giving children information about gender reassignment treatments?
- Are you in favor of allowing media content of a sexual nature that affects children’s development to be presented to them without restrictions?
- Are you in favor of showing media content depicting gender reassignment to children?
- Those: ungarnheute.hu
(lrg/ktho/tab with agencies) *fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.