Elections in Hungary

Following a reform in 2012, general elections are now conducted under a one-round, two-ballot system. The total number of seats has been reduced and regional lists have been eliminated. The number of single-member seats has increased from 45.56% of the total to 53.3%. The first ballot is to choose MPs for 106 single-member districts using first-past-the-post. The remaining 93 party-list national seats are allocated based on the sum of second ballot list votes and wasted votes from the first ballot. Wasted votes are votes that were cast for unsuccessful candidates or surplus votes for winning candidates.[1] This formula for allocating national seats is a cross between a parallel mixed system and a compensatory mixed system.

The 2014 elections were the first to be held according to the new system, which included the following significant changes:

• One round instead of two rounds.
• No turnout requirements; formerly, a turnout of 50% was needed for the first round and 25% for the second round.
• The National Assembly included 199 seats, reduced from 386 (i.e. 51.6% of the previous total).
  • 106 constituency seats, reduced from 176; their share increased from 45.6% to 53.3% of total seats.
  • 93 party-list seats, including minority-list seats, reduced from the 210 MMC and levelling seats; their share decreased from 54.4% to 46.7% of all seats.
• A 5% threshold remains for party lists, 10% for joint lists of two parties, 15% for joint lists of three or more parties.
• The quota for ethnic-minority lists to win seats is only one-quarter of the general quota.

Minority lists that do not reach the 5% of all minority-list votes and do not get at least one seat, will be able to send a minority spokesman to the National Assembly, who has the right to speak but not to vote. Practically, only the German and Romani minorities are numerous enough to possibly elect MPs, while the other 13 minorities have spokesmen.

• Constituency borders were changed, partly because of the reduced number of constituencies (from 176 to 106), partly because of the demographic changes in the proportion of the population of constituencies in the last 20 years. In the old system, the population of the smallest constituency was 33077, while the population of the largest one was 98167, which meant that the constituency vote of people living in larger constituencies was worth 3 times less than of those living in smaller constituencies. In the new system the difference between the population of the largest and smallest constituencies is lower than 30% (79208 and 109955) and the standard deviation of the population of the constituencies has also reduced from 20% to 8%.[2] The average population of constituencies used to be 57089 and will be 94789 in 2014. The constituency borders do not (necessarily) coincide with city or district borders, however, they have to coincide with county borders and with the border of Budapest (so the 19 counties and Budapest are further divided to constituencies). Budapest used to consist of 32 constituencies and will consist of 18 in 2014.
• Registration - although it had been planned previously - will not be generally required for voting[3] after being found unconstitutional,[4] only those Hungarian citizens will have to register who do not reside in Hungary (do not have Hungarian address card), this registration will be valid for 10 years or until the change of address and will be automatically extended in case of voting (so practically Hungarian citizens outside Hungary will have to re-register only in case of not voting twice or in case of changing home address)

Latest general election

Main article: 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election

Turnout (within Hungary only, excluding eligible voters abroad)[6]

7:00	9:00	11:00	13:00	15:00	17:00	18:30	Overall
1.82%	10.31%	25.77%	40.01%	52.75%	62.92%	67.80%	70.21%

Party		Party-list			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Fidesz–KDNP	3,060,706	54.13	48	2,823,419	52.80	87	135	+2
	United for Hungary	1,947,331	34.44	38	1,983,708	37.09	19	57	–8
	Our Homeland Movement	332,487	5.88	6	307,064	5.74	0	6	New
	Hungarian Two Tailed Dog Party	185,052	3.27	0	126,648	2.37	0	0	0
	Solution Movement	58,929	1.04	0	64,341	1.20	0	0	New
	Party of Normal Life	39,720	0.70	0	31,495	0.59	0	0	New
	National Self-Government of Germans	24,630	0.44	1				1	0
	National Self-Government of Croats	1,760	0.03	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Slovaks	1,208	0.02	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Rusyns	645	0.01	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Romanians	526	0.01	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Serbs	418	0.01	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Ukrainians	396	0.01	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Poles	281	0.00	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Greeks	232	0.00	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Slovenes	219	0.00	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Armenians	163	0.00	0				0	0
	National Self-Government of Bulgarians	157	0.00	0				0	0
	Leftist Alliance (ISZOMM–MMP)				8,678	0.16	0	0	New
	True Democratic Party				989	0.02	0	0	New
	Civic Response				521	0.01	0	0	New
	Our Party – IMA				326	0.01	0	0	New
	Party of Greens				208	0.00	0	0	New
	Democratic Organisation of the Hungarian Poor and Workers				177	0.00	0	0	New
	Hungarian Liberal Party				152	0.00	0	0	0
Total		5,654,860	100.00	93	5,347,726	100.00	106	199	0
Valid votes		5,654,860	99.00
Invalid/blank votes		57,065	1.00
Total votes		5,711,925	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,215,304	69.53
Source: National Electoral Commission,[6] National Electoral Commission

The numbers come from the legislature's inaugural session. Later changes may occur:

• Vacancies from party list MPs do not change the make-up of the Assembly, as they are replaced by another member of the party list. But a vacancy in a district seat triggers a by-election, which, historically, is often won by another party. See List of Hungarian by-elections.
• New factions may appear
  • in 1993, the nationalist-radicalist members of MDF quit the party and founded the MIÉP, which took part in the next three elections. It crossed the threshold only in 1998.
  • in 2011, the DK faction led by former socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, split from the MSZP and became a party of its own.
  • in 2011 also, 8 MPs from LMP left the party to set up Dialogue for Hungary

Prime ministers and their governments since 1989

Parties   MSZMP / MSZP   Fidesz   MDF   Independent

#	Picture	Name	From	Until	Political Party	Cabinet	Assembly (Election)
—		Miklós Németh (Provisional)	23 October 1989	23 May 1990	MSZP	Németh MSZP	—
35		József Antall	23 May 1990	12 December 1993 (died)	MDF	Antall MDF–FKGP–KDNP	1 (1990)
36		Péter Boross (acting)	12 December 1993	21 December 1993	MDF	Boross MDF–FKGP–KDNP
		Péter Boross	21 December 1993	15 July 1994
37		Gyula Horn	15 July 1994	8 July 1998	MSZP	Horn MSZP–SZDSZ	2 (1994)
38		Viktor Orbán	8 July 1998	27 May 2002	Fidesz	Orbán I Fidesz–FKGP–MDF	3 (1998)
39		Péter Medgyessy	27 May 2002	29 September 2004 (resigned)	Independent	Medgyessy MSZP–SZDSZ	4 (2002)
40		Ferenc Gyurcsány	29 September 2004	9 June 2006	MSZP	Gyurcsány I MSZP–SZDSZ
			9 June 2006	14 April 2009 (resigned)		Gyurcsány II MSZP–SZDSZ[1]	5 (2006)
41		Gordon Bajnai	14 April 2009	29 May 2010	Independent	Bajnai MSZP[2]
(38)		Viktor Orbán	29 May 2010	6 June 2014	Fidesz	Orbán II Fidesz–KDNP	6 (2010)
			6 June 2014	18 May 2018		Orbán III Fidesz–KDNP	7 (2014)
			18 May 2018	24 May 2022		Orbán IV Fidesz–KDNP	8 (2018)
			24 May 2022	Incumbent		Orbán V Fidesz–KDNP	9 (2022)

¹ SZDSZ left the Gyurcsány II Cabinet on 20 April 2008 and kept supporting it externally.

² The Bajnai Cabinet was supported externally by SZDSZ.

Elections for mayors and municipalities (Hungarian: Helyi önkormányzati választások) occur every five years (formerly every four years in the autumn following the general elections). On the local elections, the following are elected directly by the voters:

in Budapest

• Lord Mayor of Budapest (now since 2019: Gergely Karácsony, between 1990 and 2010: Gábor Demszky)
• members of the City Council of Budapest (since 2010: 33, 1994-2010: 66, 1990-1994: 88)
  • voters vote for party-lists
• Mayors of the districts of Budapest
• members of the District Council
  • districts of Budapest are divided to election zones (not to be confused with the constituencies of the country), and voters can vote for one of the candidates representing their election zone in the District Council

in the towns/cities with county rank:

• Mayor of the town/city
• members of the Town/City Council
  • voters vote for party-lists

in the counties (excluding towns/cities with county rank):

• members of the County Council
  • voters vote for party-lists
• Mayors of the cities, towns, villages
• members of the City/Town/Village Council
  • cities, towns and villages larger than 10000 inhabitants are divided to election zones (not to be confused with the constituencies of the country), and voters can vote for one of the candidates representing their election zone in the City/Town Council
  • towns and villages smaller than 10000 inhabitants are not divided to election zones, in these villages voters can choose as many candidates out of all the candidates as many seats there are in the Village Council, so for instance in a Village Council, where 7 seats are available and there are 15 candidates, the voters can vote for 1 to 7 candidates. Exception if the village is administratively part of a town or city, in this case the village has got one seat in the Town/City Council and villagers can only vote for one candidate representing their village in the Town/City Council just like in case of the election zones of the towns and cities. In this case the village is considered to be one of the election zones of the town/city.

The chairman of the County Council is elected by the members of the Council, unlike the Lord Mayor of Budapest or the Mayors of towns/cities with county rank, which are elected directly by people.

Since the EU expansion to Romania and Bulgaria, Hungary delegates 22 members to the European Parliament based on the Nice treaty. Any EU citizens with residence in Hungary have the right to vote for a party-list. In case of the EU elections there are no constituency votes.

The latest EP election in Hungary took place on 26 May 2019, which was the fourth one at all, after the 2004 EP election, which took place on 13 June 2004, bit more than a month after the EU expansion to 10 Eastern European countries.

Results:

The Constitution of Hungary prescribes two ways to hold a referendum (Article 8[7]):

• Parliament shall order a national referendum upon the motion of at least two hundred thousand electors
• Parliament may order a national referendum upon the motion of the President of the Republic, the Government or one hundred thousand electors.

The Constitution imposes a number of prohibitions on matters on which a referendum can be held, including amending Constitution, budget, taxing, obligations from international agreements, military operations, etc.[7]

Required voter turnout for the referendum to be valid is 50%. The decision made by a referendum is binding on the Parliament.[7]

The President of Hungary, who has a largely ceremonial role under the country's constitution, is elected by the members of the National Assembly to serve for a term of five years (maximum two times), and has to quit their political party (if they have one) in order to be impartial and able to express the unity of the nation (so the "Political Party" column refers to their party membership, prior to becoming president).

Presidents of Hungary:

#	Picture	Name	From	Until	Political party	Notes
		Mátyás Szűrös	18 October 1989	2 May 1990	Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)	interim president (until the formation of the first freely elected National Assembly)
1		Árpád Göncz	2 May 1990	4 August 2000	Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ)	president of the republic
2		Ferenc Mádl	4 August 2000	5 August 2005	Non-partisan	president of the republic
3		László Sólyom	5 August 2005	6 August 2010	Non-partisan	president of the republic
4		Pál Schmitt	6 August 2010	2 April 2012 (resigned)	Fidesz	president of the republic
		László Kövér	2 April 2012	10 May 2012	Fidesz	acting president
5		János Áder	10 May 2012	10 May 2022	Fidesz	president of the republic
6		Katalin Novák	10 May 2022	Incumbent	Fidesz	president of the republic

Parties   Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)   Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ)   Fidesz

The non-partisan Ferenc Mádl had been elected by the Fidesz-FKgp-MDF government in 2000, while the also non-partisan László Sólyom (former President of the Constitutional Court) had been elected president as the opposition Fidesz's and MDF's candidate in 2005. The minor party of the coalition government (SZDSZ) did not support the superior coalition government party's (MSZP) candidate, therefore Mr. Sólyom could win as an opposition candidate.

The previous general elections (2010) in the country resulted in an overwhelming majority win for the conservative opposition party Fidesz (which gained a 2/3 supermajority by winning the 68% of the seats (52.7% of the votes)), as well the dramatic rise of the far-right newcomers Jobbik (12.2% of seats, 16.7% of votes), who were just 2.5% short of the former ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (15.3% of seats, 19.3% of votes).

The green liberal, social progressivist Politics Can Be Different (4.1% of seats, 7.5% of votes) was also newcomer, while the liberal conservative formerly parliamentary Hungarian Democratic Forum (2.7% of votes) could not achieve the 5% threshold, and the formerly parliamentary (and also member of the coalition government before 2009) Alliance of Free Democrats was not able to run on the election because of the large decrease of popularity.

This election has changed the balance of power in the National Assembly of Hungary the most significantly since the end of the communist one-party system, as two brand new political forces could have got to the National Assembly while two formerly parliamentary parties fell out and the support of previous ruling party had significantly decreased (from 48.2% to 15.3% of seats, from 40.3% to 19.3% of votes).

• List of Hungarian by-elections
• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• International Criticism of Fourth Amendment of the 2011 Constitution

• National Election Office Hungary
• Politics.hu - English-language resource about Hungarian politics
• NSD: European Election Database - Hungary
• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Parties and elections