Budapest Mayoral Election Too Close to Call

Incumbent Gergely Karácsony won the election for the mayoral post of the Hungarian capital this Sunday but with only a few hundred votes and main rival Dávid Vitézy announced he would ask for a recount. Municipal elections in Hungary were held in parallel with the European Parliamentary elections in which the most Hungarian Euro MP posts were won by the governing Fidesz party.

Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony received 371,467 votes (or 47.53%) of the votes as opposed to 371,143 votes (or 47.49%) cast for Dávid Vitézy, according to data published by the National Election Office early Monday morning. This is the standing after 100% of the votes counted at a turnout of just over 65%.

At the European Parliamentary elections, 11 of the 21 seats allocated for Hungary went to the Fidesz party (with over 44% of the votes), the newly formed Tisza party can send 7 people to the European Parliament (with close to 30% of the votes), while two seats went to the Democratic Coalition (with over 8% of the votes) and one for the Mi Hazánk (‘Our Country) getting one seat with (with under 7% of the votes). These figures were published by MTI at over 91% of the votes counted.