Like deja vu all over again: The Hungarian Parliamentary elections of 2002

• Main Author: BENOIT, Kenneth
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2002
• Subjects: Eastern European Studies; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4021; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5279/viewcontent/Benoit_2002_JCSTP_pv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

On 7 and 21 April 2002, Hungary went to the polls to vote in its fourth competitive election since the transition to a multi-party system in 1989. Voting took place in two rounds, first on 7 April in 176 single-member districts and 20 proportional list districts, and then on 21 April in a run-off in the 131 single-member districts that had not yielded a majority candidate in the first round. The result was a surprise to nearly everyone. First, surpassing all expectations, turnout exceeded 70 per cent of the registered electorate, higher than in any previous election in Hungary. Second, although the governing coalition of the Fidesz–Hungarian Civic Party and its junior partner the Hungarian Democratic Forum was widely predicted to win a majority of the 386 seats in the Hungarian single-chamber legislature, it performed poorly in the first round of elections, and failed to recapture enough lost ground in the second round to win the 194 seats need to maintain power. Hence the alliance of the Hungarian Socialist Party and its former junior coalition partner the Alliance of Free Democrats went on to form a government with a narrow ten-seat lead.