Following vote counts from 94.66% of polling stations, Hungary’s parliamentary election shows Tisza with 138 seats, surpassing Fidesz’s 54.
Partial Results and Foreign Vote Count
Vote counting began immediately after 7 PM. No exit polls were conducted within the country.
Votes cast abroad must arrive by Thursday and be tallied by April 18th. A final result may not be known until Saturday if the largest lists are closely matched. This year saw a record number of registered voters abroad – over 90,000 – and a record number of postal votes, nearly 224,000, according to NVI data.
Voting System and Thresholds
Hungary employs a 5% threshold for political parties, 10% for two-party coalitions, and 15% for three-or-more-party lists. The D’Hondt method is used for distributing seats from party lists. Five party lists and 12 Hungarian minority lists were registered to participate in the election.
The Key Contestants
The outcome will primarily be determined between the Fidesz-KDNP coalition, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and the Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar.
Election Day and Turnout
Hungarian voters elected 199 deputies to the National Assembly (Orszaggyules), a unicameral parliament. 106 are elected in single-member districts, and 93 from national lists. The candidate with the most votes wins each district, even without a majority.
Eligible voters in Hungary were entitled to cast two votes: one for a candidate in their district and one for a party or national minority list. Voters abroad cast a single vote for a national list.
Reactions from Leaders
After casting his vote in Budapest, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated he would respect the election result and congratulate the winner if the opposition prevailed, adding, “The people’s decision must be respected,” but also asserting he “came here to win.”
Tisza leader Péter Magyar emphasized after voting that “no one seriously believes that Tisza will not win the election.” He added that whether the party secures a simple or two-thirds majority remains open, which is necessary for constitutional changes, and that he would accept the results if no fraud significantly impacted the outcome.
Profiles: Orbán and Magyar
Viktor Orbán, co-founder and leader of Fidesz, has governed Hungary continuously since 2010. He began his political career in 1989 by calling for the departure of Soviet troops. Since returning to power 16 years ago, he has transformed into an outspoken opponent of liberal democracy, altering the constitution and strengthening government control over media and the judiciary. Under his leadership, Hungary has been identified by Transparency International as the most corrupt country in the European Union.
His rival, Péter Magyar, is a former member of Fidesz who previously worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hungary’s permanent representation to the EU. He gained wider recognition in 2024 after President Katalin Novák pardoned a person convicted of covering up pedophilia. Magyar criticized the corruption of Orbán’s power system in a YouTube video, leading to his departure from Fidesz.
The video reached millions – approximately 10% of Hungary’s population – and Magyar organized the largest protests in years, leading the little-known Respect and Freedom Party (Tisza), which achieved the second-best result in the 2024 European Parliament elections.
