The mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, who won the local elections by a slim margin, submitted a request to the Supreme Court (Curia) on Monday to nullify the vote and organize new elections throughout the entire capital.
“I know it’s unusual for a politician to keep his word and ask for a repeat of an election he won,”Karacsony wrote on Facebook, and announced he would submit a similar application even before the final results were announced.
According to the mayor, who has held office since 2019, electoral procedures were not properly conducted in several locations.
His opponent, David Vitezy, nominated by LMP – the Hungarian Green Party and eventually backed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz, is calling for a new vote in two districts of the capital.
On Monday, June 10, the Hungarian National Electoral Commission (NVI) declared that Karacsony had won over Vitezy by just 324 votes, which is a mere 0.04% difference. Out of over 370,000 voters, both candidates received votes. Vitezy held the lead for a significant period; however, the positions of the candidates changed once more than 90% of the votes were tallied.
On Friday, at Vitezy’s request, a recount of invalid votes took place, and Karacsony remained the victor, but his margin decreased to just 41 votes. Since Karacsony assumed the mayoral position of the capital in 2019 with the backing of a coalition of opposition parties, he has faced severe criticism from Fidesz. During the election campaign leading up to the local government elections, he received support from various figures, including Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski.
Vitezy, an economist and former Secretary of State for Transport in Orbán’s government, served as the general director of the Budapest city transport operator – BKK from 2010 to 2014. Despite being the opposition LMP’s candidate, there were media speculations several months before the elections that he could potentially garner support from Fidesz.
