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Viewing cable 06BUDAPEST733, HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS: PARSING ROUND ONE'S RESULTS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06BUDAPEST733 2006-04-10 16:31 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Budapest
VZCZCXRO8230
RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHUP #0733/01 1001631
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101631Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8974
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BUDAPEST 000733 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS:  PARSING ROUND ONE'S RESULTS 
(C-RE6-00145) 
 
REF: STATE 22644 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (SBU) Only the April 23 second round of Hungary's 
elections will establish who may form the country's next 
government, but the wind is with the governing coalition. 
That alone is a first for Hungary's post-1990 elections, but 
there were some other surprises:  an unexpectedly robust 
turnout, and the return to Parliament of both smaller 
parties.  Junior governing coalition partner SZDSZ's success 
may prove decisive for the continuation of the current 
coalition.  Junior opposition party MDF's survival, however, 
leaves Orban with the most reluctant of potential partners. 
The chief opposition party FIDESZ turned in a strong showing 
but appears to have stretched its umbrella too thin.  Post 
will report on round two's results and analyze their 
significance for U.S. policy septels. 
 
------------------------------- 
Tight Race Spurs Robust Turnout 
------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) Many observers, including party workers, predicted a 
turnout for this year's race to come in about 10 points lower 
than 2002's 70.53 percent in the first round.  However, when 
the polls closed at 7 p.m. Sunday night, 67.83 percent of 
Hungary's 8.1 million voters had cast ballots nationwide.  In 
Budapest, the figure was even higher, at 74.29 percent. 
General elections in Hungary have witnessed relatively high 
rates of voter participation in recent years.  In 1994, 68.90 
percent participated in the first round; in 1998, the figure 
was 56.26 percent.  (Note:  Hungary's voter participation 
rate is high by regional standards.  In general elections 
last fall, only about 40 percent of Poles went to the polls 
to cast their ballots.  In presidential elections in Slovakia 
two years ago, the rate was 43 percent, and turnout was 58 
percent in elections in the Czech Republic in 2002.) 
 
3. (SBU) Another tight race, in addition to the beautiful 
spring weather, may have contributed to this year's high 
voter turnout.  Another factor:  Hungarians for the first 
time are able to cast their ballots in polling stations away 
from their home districts (if they signed up to do so ahead 
of time), and even those who were out in the provinces on 
vacation or in their vacation homes that day could and did 
vote.  This year, for the first time, it was also possible to 
vote at Hungarian embassies abroad.  In recent weeks and 
months, all four parliamentary parties have been urging their 
supporters to go and vote.  In particular, FIDESZ had waged a 
significant "get out the vote" drive, with volunteers calling 
upon sympathizers three times each in the final days of the 
campaign, using lists created over at least two years of 
grass-roots campaigning. 
 
------------------ 
Observing the Vote 
------------------ 
 
4. (U) Wearing observer badges issued by the National 
Election Commission, eight teams of Embassy personnel visited 
more than one hundred polling stations in all regions of 
Hungary on April 9.  Workers at several polling stations told 
Emboffs that turnout was higher in the morning than at the 
same time of day four years ago.  Along the Danube, 
polling-station officials told Embassy observers that recent 
flooding had not impacted turnout "at all."  No polling 
station reporting long lines or wait times.  All observers 
reported that election officials were "friendly and 
forthcoming."  Most polling stations were staffed with six to 
twelve paid election officials and volunteer workers. 
Volunteers were from the four parliamentary parties, and 
appeared to work well together. 
 
----------------- 
Four on the Floor 
----------------- 
 
5. (SBU) With 100 percent of the vote counted, all four of 
the parties currently in Parliament were able to cross the 
five-percent threshold for entering the legislature. 
Nationwide, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) garnered 
43.21 percent of the county party-list vote, followed by the 
joint ticket of the Alliance of Young Democrats and the 
Christian Democratic People's Party (FIDESZ-KNDP) at 42.03 
percent, the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) at 6.5 
percent and the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) at 5.04 
 
BUDAPEST 00000733  002 OF 004 
 
 
percent.  (Note:  In 2004, the results were comparable:  the 
combined FIDESZ-MDF ticket received 41.07 percent, MSZP 42.05 
percent and SZDSZ 5.57 percent.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
MSZP-SZDSZ Leads, FIDESZ Hopes for Sleeper Victory 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
6. (SBU) Hungary's electoral system assigns mandates as 
individual constituencies, party-list seats and national-list 
seats:  In round one, only those individual-constituency 
races where one candidate won an outright majority were 
decisive.  Sixty-six of the 176 individual-constituency races 
were decided at the first go, with MSZP winning 33 such 
seats, joint MSZP-SZDSZ candidates winning in five, and 
FIDESZ winning 29 seats.  Neither SZDSZ nor MDF won a clear 
first-round majority in any individual race.  (Note:  In 
2002, by comparison, only 45 individual constituencies were 
decided in the first round.)  When county party-list seats 
are added in, the totals reach 105 seats for MSZP, four for 
the joint MSZP-SZDSZ ticket, and four for SZDSZ alone (thus 
113 for the governing coalition); plus 97 for FIDESZ and two 
for MDF, all out of a total of 386 mandates. 
 
(SBU) As a result, only the second round on April 23 will 
decide who forms Hungary's next government.  Political 
scientist Zoltn Lakner commented on Hungarian State 
Television that, in order to win, FIDESZ needs some 65 of the 
110 individual mandates to be decided in round two, and 
cannot win them without MDF support.  According to FIDESZ 
party president Orban, the party may need as many as 75 of 
the 110 undecided mandates.  (Comment:  That will indeed be a 
tall order in those districts where FIDESZ led in the first 
round but failed to attain a majority.  In a number of those 
districts, MDF also qualified for the second round by proving 
itself one of the top three vote getters.  FIDESZ and MDF 
have little more than burnt bridges to link them at this 
point, however.) 
 
------------------------- 
FIDESZ:  What Went Wrong? 
------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) Despite Orban's combative demeanor as election night 
came to a close ("we'll see who laughs last"), the FIDESZ 
leadership must be disappointed with its performance.  The 
April 9 contest left it slightly behind (1.1 percent) the 
governing MSZP in the party-list category and 7.7 percent 
behind when junior governing coalition party SZDSZ's 6.5 
percent is added to the MSZP's party-list total.  It trails 
in individual-mandate tallies as well.  What went wrong for 
FIDESZ?  Although the results of the April 9 contest will 
have to be analyzed carefully, hindsight suggests a number of 
tactical and strategic errors: 
 
-- FIDESZ's efforts to court a new electorate may have come 
at the expense of its core voters, some of whom may have been 
put off by its embrace of statism and populism; 
 
-- anecdotal evidence suggests some of the electorate may 
have rejected FIDESZ's contention that they were indeed 
"worse off" now than four years ago.  FIDESZ's shift to a 
more positive message in the last three weeks of the campaign 
cycle can be read as a tacit admission that its more negative 
message was wide of the mark; 
 
-- the party's effort to effect a hostile takeover of junior 
opposition party MDF failed.  The President of the public 
opinion research firm Tarki, Istvan Toth, told Embassy April 
10 that FIDESZ had "stretched its umbrella too thin."  In 
particular, he thought FIDESZ's courting of Hungary's 
proletariat had cost it the votes of "urban, well-educated, 
rightist" voters, many of whom had made an eleventh-hour 
decision to vote for MDF; 
 
-- it is possible that FIDESZ's declared state of perpetual 
war with the Socialist Party has worn thin with an electorate 
anxious for the a less adversarial political climate. 
 
------------------- 
Regional Variations 
------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) (Note: The distribution of mandates from the 
national lists of the four parties will only be calculated 
after the second round of voting.)  Of Hungary's twenty 
counties (including Budapest), MSZP took the most votes in 11 
and FIDESZ-KNDP in 9.  Budapest, with its 28 county-list 
mandates up for grabs, proved decisive for the two smaller 
 
BUDAPEST 00000733  003 OF 004 
 
 
parties.  SZDSZ won a full 12.28 percent of the vote in the 
capital, good for 3 of the party's 4 mandates, and MDF 5.3 
percent, which gave it one of its two mandates.  The 
party-list races in roughly one-third of the counties were 
extremely close, with the margin of victory between the two 
main parties narrowing to a mere 2 to 4 percentage points. 
Interestingly, the two westernmost counties (Vas and Zala) 
gave FIDESZ the most solid support, while Borsod County, in 
the far northeast, turned out in strength for MSZP.  (In Vas, 
FIDESZ polled 50.8 percent to the MSZP's 35.65.  In Zala, 
49.67 to 37.26.  In Borsod, it was MSZP that won 50.94 
percent to FIDESZ's 37.26.) 
 
--------------------- 
SZDSZ:  Stronger Hand 
in Budapest 
--------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) SZDSZ performed rather better than most pollsters 
had anticipated.  The party's strenuous efforts to mobilize 
its voters appears to have paid off, particularly in 
Budapest, where SZDSZ picked up 20,000 more votes than in 
2002.  Budapest accounts for nearly half of the 351,000 votes 
that SZDSZ received nationwide.  SZDSZ may have FIDESZ to 
thank at least in part for its relatively strong showing, as 
certain elements of the main opposition party's campaign 
--such as the attack on single people by FIDESZ "deputy prime 
minister-designate" Istvan Mikola-- may have brought some 
voters to the ballot box who otherwise might have stayed home. 
 
---------------------- 
MDF's Surprise Victory 
---------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) To the surprise of all polling companies and 
observers here, MDF safely crossed the critical five-percent 
margin for entering Parliament.  At the Parliament Cafe, 
where the party had set up its election-night headquarters, 
hope mounted as the returns trickled in and MDF's proportion 
of the vote inched upward.  The room burst into cheers as the 
party nudged over the critical threshold by the slim margin 
of 0.05 percent, representing a scant 1,400 votes nationwide. 
 For months, polls had consistently placed support for MDF 
between three and four percent.  The party's unexpectedly 
strong performance may be attributed to a well-run campaign, 
state-media coverage (which David gave thanks for while on 
the air), David's own highly-popular persona, and an 
anti-Orban protest vote on the right.  (Comment:  As David 
has noted, the key result of MDF's continuing presence in 
Parliament is that Hungary's right wing will not be 
represented solely by FIDESZ.  In David's final 
election-night statement she said unequivocally, again, that 
MDF would not support Orban's return to power -- thus 
appearing to diminish FIDESZ's chances of winning a majority 
of the seats up for grabs in the second round, where the 
unified left is poised to face a divided right wing.  Cynics 
on the right will charge that pro-government state media 
consciously gave MDF air time in order to divide the right; 
others may shrug that equal time is an established principle.) 
 
----------------------------- 
High-Profile Individual Races 
----------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) There were no particular surprises for many of the 
key figures in national politics who ran in individual 
districts.  MSZP party president Istvan Hiller shot into 
first place in Budapest's 29th electoral district, with 
20-plus percent votes more than his FIDESZ rival.  Parliament 
Speaker Katalin Szili (MSZP) recaptured a safe seat in the 
southern Transdanubian town of Pecs.  Ildiko Lendvai, MSZP's 
faction head in Parliament, has won a plurality of votes in 
her district, but she will need to wait for the second round 
to find out whether she can best FIDESZ's candidate.  Janos 
Koka, the SZDSZ Minister of Economy and Trade, is in second 
place in his affluent Budapest district, trailing FIDESZ 
District Mayor Gabor Tamas Nagy by four percent. 
Surprisingly, MDF party president Ibolya David is in third 
place in her home constituency, a small town in western 
Hungary.  David, with just 12 percent of the vote, does not 
stand a real chance against her FIDESZ opponent, but will 
enter Parliament regardless on the MDF national list. 
Prominent SZDSZer Matyas Eorsi will also have to rely on his 
party's list, as he is at third place in his Budapest 
district, with only 9 percent of the vote.  SZDSZ party 
president Gabor Kuncze's situation is similar:  in his Pest 
county town, he is in third place, with 19 percent of 
first-round votes.  MSZP senior figure Imre Szekeres, on the 
other hand, is in a rather secure first place in his 
 
BUDAPEST 00000733  004 OF 004 
 
 
district, with 46 percent of ballots cast in his favor. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
12. (SBU) Although FIDESZ clearly has its work cut out for 
it, MSZP cannot afford to relax.  Up for grabs are the 
remaining individual mandate seats.  It appears that MSZP has 
the lead in 57 of those races, but much can change between 
now and April 23.  A key figure in the outcome may be the 
MDF's President Ibolya David.  Although she appears to have 
decisively rejected a coalition with FIDESZ, she will be 
courted relentlessly by Viktor Orban, and there will be 
pressure from some in her party.  The outcome at this 
juncture is difficult to predict, as the last elections 
showed:  in 2002, FIDESZ was similarly behind the curve after 
the election's first round, but had fought its way back to 
near-victory by round two.  Clearly, Orban hopes for a 
similar sprint to the finish line this time around. 
 
13. (U) Visit Embassy Budapest's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/budapest/index.cfm 
WALKER