Tisza Primary Farce Ends: Final Results Raise Serious Questions

Here’s the strange Tisza “miracle”: Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi turned a modest 34 percent in the first round into nearly 92 percent in the second.

Tisza Party chief Peter Magyar (Photo: Kornel Makovics)

In a long, dragging program filled with staged interviews, Peter Magyar, leader of the Tisza Party, presented what appears to be the opposition party's final slate of candidates. If nothing else, he managed to prove that the entire primary was pure theater. In the previous round of voting, Ruszin-Szendi, former chief of the Hungarian Defense Forces, finished only second with 34 percent of the vote—yet suddenly, in what can only be described as a miraculous turnaround, he soared past 90 percent in the second. After this, it’s hard to imagine the outcome wasn’t prearranged.

Peter Magyar’s Favorites Win Everywhere

There was no surprise when one of the party’s better-known figures, Zoltan Tarr—who previously exposed Magyar’s camp with his infamous “we need to win the elections, then we can do anything” remark—won the Soroksar district with just over half the vote. In the first round, he too had placed second. Tarr’s words have proven prophetic, as this week the party’s draft austerity package came to light, one that would hit Hungarian families, small businesses, pensioners, and even pet owners with brutal new burdens.

There was little suspense surrounding actor Ervin Nagy either, who secured his district in Dunaujvaros with 84 percent of the vote. Opera singer Andrea Rost—who rediscovered her “opposition spirit” after failing to win the directorship of the Hungarian State Opera—also cruised to victory in Szolnok, backed by 63 percent of Tisza voters. And no one had to bite their nails over whether Kriszta Bodis, LGBTQ activist and children's book (the notorious Csipke Jozsika) author, would carry the Budapest district of Jozsefvaros, receiving nearly 72 percent within the party.

A Pre-Arranged Performance

The primary qualifies as a staged performance in more ways than one, given the long list of irregularities. Even the introduction of the pre-candidates was delayed—originally promised for September. It’s worth recalling that Peter Magyar, as early as last May—just months after entering politics—boasted that an overwhelming number of candidate aspirants were flocking to them and that they could put up candidates in all 106 districts “in a single day.”

The first round itself barely got off the ground due to registration failures in the system, sparking angry complaints on the party’s social media pages. Without registration, voting was impossible, and many commenters reported that the system refused to accept uploaded proof-of-address cards, even blocking users altogether. Magyar’s team blamed system overload, admitting that many were unable to register—meaning the problem was widespread.

Originally, the Tisza Party had planned to run the vote through the Tisza Vilag (Tisza World) app, but they were ultimately forced to conduct their so-called primary on the Nemzethangja.hu website. 

The series of data leak scandals had eroded trust so severely that even members of local Tisza support groups (Tiszasziget) refused to use the app.

Tamas Menczer—who accurately predicted that Andrea Bujdoso, a Tisza politician in the Budapest assembly and living in Urom for over twenty years, would become his opponent in the elections—also noted that Tisza’s so-called primary was nothing but a staged production. As we previously reported, the Fidesz–KDNP communications director said that “the same left-wing play-acting is happening as with Marki-Zay.” Back then, too, they pretended to hold a primary, while “everything was already negotiated behind the scenes”: who stays, who withdraws, who aligns with whom. “This time, they don’t even bother with putting up that much of a show,” he added.

"They say: you just click, and then we’ll count the results in a dark room. The entire thing is a giant scam. And the great "truth-telling" Peter Magyar will be the one announcing the results. From here, it’s obvious how baseless the whole process is,” 

Menczer said sharply.

 

Four Years Ago, Twice as Many Left-Wing Voters Participated

Gergely Gulyas, Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, also highlighted the pre-scripted nature of the Tisza process, backing up his claim with data. 

The left-wing primary held four years ago mobilized more than twice as many people as this one.

Cover photo: Tisza Party chief Peter Magyar (Photo: Kornel Makovics)