Parliamentary Elections in Hungary This Sunday

Hungarians go to the polls this Sunday to elect a new parliament and decide whether to keep the government of Viktor Orbán in power or favor the united opposition headed by prime ministerial candidate Péter Márky-Zay. Most opinion polls forecast a close result.

According to the Basic Law of Hungary, which went into force on January 1, 2012, replacing the country’s constitution, the election will have a single round and 199 Members of Parliament will be elected – 106 from individual constituencies and 93 from party lists.

There is a 5% threshold in case of party lists. The suffrage includes Hungarian citizens who do not have a permanent residence in Hungary. However, they are only entitled to cast their ballots for Hungarian party lists and not in single-member constituencies.

These hundreds of thousands of people with no residence in Hungary (usually, ethnic Hungarians who were given Hungarian citizenship and thus, the right to vote at the Hungarian elections) are allowed to cast their vote by mail – an opportunity not given to Hungarians working abroad who can only vote at Hungarian representation offices abroad.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sends a full election observation mission – of over 200 people – to Hungary for the parliamentary elections. So far, the only EU member country where such a mission was deemed necessary has been Bulgaria.

Polling stations in Hungary open at 6 o'clock in the morning on Sunday and close at 19.00 hours.