After a recount of the ballots cast at the June 9th election, NVI head Róbert Sasvári said on Friday that incumbent Gergely Karácsony received 371,538 votes, while his closest rival, Dávid Vitézy, had 371,245. Karácsony has won by 293 votes, Sasvári said.

The recount was undertaken between July 9 and 11.

Election CTTEE Declares Karácsony Winner in Mayoral Election Recount

Budapest’s incumbent mayor, Gergely Karácsony, has come out on top in the mayoral election recount, the election committee said.

Róbert Sasvári, the National Election Committee’s (NVB) head, said after the recount that Karácsony (Párbeszéd-Greens-DK-Socialists) notched up 371,538 votes, Dávid Vitézy (Dávid Vitézy for Budapest-LMP-Greens) received 371,245, with a difference between the two candidates of 293 votes.

“There are three Hungarian truths: we won first time round, we won a second time, and on Friday we won a third time,” Karácsony said on Facebook after the result was declared. He said the outcome of the recount gave him a good reason “to say once again: thank you, Budapest!”.

Meanwhile, Vitézy said on Facebook: “The election is over but our work is just beginning.”

He congratulated Karácsony and also expressed gratitude for the support and encouragement during the campaign and “the dogged work of volunteers and my colleagues”.

New Twist: Recount in Budapest Mayoral Election Now Called for by Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court has ordered the supreme court, the Kuria, to call for a recount of all votes cast in last month’s election for Budapest mayor, a decision posted on the top court’s website showed.

The Constitutional Court on Friday scrapped as unconstitutional a recent ruling by the Kuria, which had okayed the results of the June 9 mayoral election in Budapest, according to the decision.

According to the Constitutional Court, the Kuria had failed to appropriately justify its decision to reject a request to review the National Election Committee’s decree, which had established that incumbent Mayor Gergely Karácsony had won the ballot as against contender Dávid Vitézy with just 41 votes.

Under the top court’s ruling the supreme court is obliged to repeat its procedure and make a new decision.

Kúria Orders Recount of All Votes in Budapest Mayoral Election

Hungary’s Supreme Court, the Kúria, has ordered a recount of all votes cast in last month’s election for Budapest mayor.

In line with the ruling which partially amended an earlier decision by the National Election Committee, all votes submitted at the mayoral election must be re-examined and recounted, and the results of the election announced based on the recount.

The Kúria ruling cannot be appealed. The Constitutional Court on Friday scrapped as unconstitutional a June 26 ruling by the Kúria, which had okayed the results of the June 9 mayoral election in Budapest, and ordered the Kúria to make a new decision.

Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, has said he would regard a recount of votes cast in last month’s mayoral election as “an attempt at electoral fraud”, in the absence of certain “guarantees”.

Karácsony, who ran for re-election as a joint candidate of the Dialogue-Greens, Democratic Coalition and Socialist parties, told a press conference that there were four specific guarantees that he expected to be met, otherwise the recount could be interpreted as “a clear attempt at electoral fraud”.

The first, he said, was that ballot boxes and the ballots themselves could not be “taken anywhere” or opened without delegates of the National Election Committee (NVB) present.

His second demand was that opposition NVB delegates also had to be present for the opening of the ballot boxes and ballots.

The third necessary guarantee, he said, was that the opening of the ballot boxes and the recount must be done in public “with even the most-minute details documented”.

Finally, he called for the opportunity to delegate additional observers.

At a meeting on Monday, the NVB decided that the votes cast for mayoral candidates will have to be recounted and reviewed at the local election offices.

The body also decided that ballots whose validity is in doubt will have to be sent in to the NVB for review.

Members of the press will be allowed to be present for the recount and reviews, they said. Robert Sasvári, the head of the committee, said close to 800,000 votes will have to be recounted, and a final decision is expected by Friday morning.

MTI Photo: Csaba Krizsán

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