Once again, the agents of the Open Society network, calling themselves election observers, have travelled to Hungary for another unnecessary intrigue: the elections were free and fair, and the electoral system passed with flying colours, according to a statement by the Budapest-based Center for Fundamental Rights.
As in the past decade, Sunday's elections was conducted smoothly both from a legal viewpoint and in terms of organization. This is particularly important, because Sunday was the first time that EP and local elections were held on the same day in Hungary, the statement read.
The electoral bodies made sure that conditions for people to exercise one of their most important constitutional rights even under the severe strain were in place. The IT system also performed well, so voting was conducted without any disruptions, the think tank said. The Center for Fundamental Rights recalled that on Sunday, a total of nearly eight million voters were eligible to cast their ballots for their European Parliament and local government candidates in more than three thousand municipalities and ten thousand polling stations.
Hungary's electoral system, renewed after 2010, has once again proved capable of ensuring the democratic expression of will in an efficient and transparent manner, preventing abuses,
– they emphasized. They noted that the electoral system in Western democracies is not always so reliable: in recent years, for example, in Austria, Spain and the United States, there have been failures that have undermined the social acceptance of elections.
In Hungary in 2022, delegates from opposition constituencies and the international observers linked to the Open Society network were forced to acknowledge that the electoral system works well and that there is no room for abuse," the statement said, adding that this was no different in Sunday's vote.
Regardless of the results, we can clearly state that Hungarian democracy has won, the statement by the Center for Fundamental Rights said. We can be justifiably proud that Hungary has one of the best functioning electoral systems in the European Union," they underlined.
