FUTILE FIRST ELECTION TURN

As it was expected, yesterday the first round of presidential election closed without any result. Neither Katalin Szili, candidate of the Hungarian Socialist Party, nor László Sólyom, candidate of Fidesz and the Hungarian Democratic Forum could collect the necessary amount, two-third of all votes.

There was a surprising turn of events, however, yesterday as Fidesz remained absent from the voting procedure. Katalin Szili had 183 votes while László Sólyom collected 13 ones, three votes were not valid. The Fidesz faction wanted to sound the rest of the MPs by this move, as faction leader János Áder put it ’we wanted to make them show their cards’ and according to Mr Áder the Hungarian Democratic Forum had a double play, three members of which voted for Katalin Szili though the chairperson of the party, Ibolya Dávid denied the accusation. The parties reaffirmed their candidates yesterday while the Free Democrats retain their position by abstaining from the election.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó