Ballots from Abroad on the Way, This Many Votes Still Need to Be Counted

Final results in individual constituencies will be available within a week at the latest, while the final party-list results are expected by May 4.

Illustration (Photo: Balazs Ladoczki)

Votes cast at foreign missions, as well as those cast through voter transfer, along with mail-in ballots submitted at foreign missions, are expected to arrive at the National Election Office (NVI) by Thursday at the latest.

Photo: MTI/Edvard Molnar

Mail-in ballots are counted by the NVI, while votes cast at foreign missions and through voter transfer are sorted by individual constituencies. 

These ballots will then be delivered to the respective constituency election offices on Friday.

 

Traveling ballots

On Sunday, in all 106 individual constituencies, there was one polling station where votes were not counted after the close of polls. Instead, the ballot box slot was sealed, and the boxes were transported to the local election office, where they have been securely stored.

These ballot boxes contain votes cast at foreign missions and by voters who registered to vote in a different location 

The boxes can only be opened and the votes counted when all ballots cast at foreign missions and through voter transfer have arrived in the given constituency. Voters using the transfer option were required to place their ballots in green envelopes on Sunday; these envelopes were sent to the NVI, while the ballot boxes containing votes cast at foreign missions must arrive by midnight on Thursday.

 

How many votes are we talking about?

The NVI will then sort these “traveling” ballots by constituency and forward them to the appropriate districts, where they will be handed over to the designated vote-counting committees. The constituency election committees will determine the final, aggregated results for each district no later than the sixth day after the vote, that is, by Saturday. The regional election committees will also establish the partial territorial results of the national party-list vote, based on polling station reports, likewise no later than Saturday.

The results of mail-in voting by voters without a registered address in Hungary will be recorded and certified by the NVI.

The final national party-list results of the parliamentary election will be determined by the National Election Committee, based on the certified territorial results, the report on mail-in voting, and the certified results from individual constituencies, no later than May 4.

The NVI registered a total of 497,000 mail-in voters. By Sunday morning, 293,000 mail-in ballots had been submitted by eligible voters, who were only able to vote for party lists. A total of 90,730 voters were listed in the foreign mission registry, of whom 84,749 cast their votes, resulting in a turnout of 93.41 percent across 149 foreign missions, where voters could vote both in individual constituencies and for party lists.

Cover photo: Illustration (Photo: Balazs Ladoczki)