Gergely Karácsony Calls for a Redo of the Budapest Mayoral Election

Gergely Karácsony is calling for a redo of the election for lord mayor in the capital. The mayoral candidate (Dialogue-Greens, DK, MSZP) announced this at a press conference in front of the National Election Commission’s (NVB) building on Thursday, after the Commission ordered a recount of invalid votes the day before, following an initiative by mayoral candidate Dávid Vitézy (LMP-Greens, With Dávid Vitézy for Budapest).

Gergely Karácsony said that there are so many legal uncertainties in the recount process that they can only be remedied by a new election. The whole recount process has not been implemented without any guarantee of the rule of law, “because of the NVB’s decision, which was made in a manner of martial law,” he said.

He said that

he would not accept the NVB’s decision even if the recount resulted in him being declared the winner again, meaning that whatever the result, he would call for a new election.

He noted that with every minute that passes, there is less and less hope that the result of the elections will be reassuring for the people of Budapest. On the one hand, it has become clear that “Fidesz has based its strategy on deceiving voters,” he argued, indicating that the EU Election Observation Mission has also pointed out that withdrawing a candidate at the last minute is a strategy to deceive voters.

In his opinion, “the so-called evidence” on the basis of which the NVB ruled does not justify a recount, neither on the basis of previous jurisprudence nor on the basis of the law. He said that the “evidence was in fact the statements of the Fidesz constituency delegates,” in which they claimed to remember that something was wrong. “They were from people who signed a pledge at dawn on Monday that these votes were invalid,” he added.

The Mayor noted that further doubts were raised by the fact that the NVB did not order the sealed ballot boxes to the National Election Office (NVI), but instructed local election offices to open the ballot boxes and send the invalid votes to the NVI. “It is difficult to assume that there is no political intent behind this,” he said.

Karácsony stressed that the city can only be run on the basis of trust, and that this trust can only be restored by a redo of the mayoral election. He therefore invites all those who agree with the need to restore trust, to the NVB building on Friday evening at 6 p.m.

In response to questions, he said that he would definitely challenge the NVB’s decision before the Curia of Hungary. If the Curia decides so, a rerun election could be held in June, he added.

András Grundtner (Our Homeland Movement) received 38,942 votes, Dávid Vitézy 371,142, and Karácsony 371,466. On this basis, the Budapest Election Commission concluded that Karácsony was elected mayor. The decision could be appealed within three days on the grounds of an infringement of the law. On Wednesday, the NVB ordered a recount of the invalid votes in the mayoral election on the initiative of Vitézy. They argued that his evidence gave grounds to believe that there were a large number of invalid votes that should be considered valid.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI / Koszticsák Szilárd