Jobbik: OSCE report shows election campaign conditions discriminatory

A final report by the election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) shows that campaign conditions were discriminatory against the opposition Jobbik, the party said on Friday.

The report issued last Friday contains numerous arguments demonstrating that ruling Fidesz managed to repeatedly win a two-thirds majority at the election “due to an unjust election law that fit its own purposes,” Jobbik said in a statement.

Starting from the provisions for the surplus votes of winning candidates to alterations to constituency boundaries and to discrimination against voters living abroad who had permanent Hungarian residence, almost all newly introduced features in the election law worked to the favour of the ruling parties, Jobbik added.

According to the statement, the OSCE report made special mention of the disadvantageous treatment of Jobbik and included several examples showing that Jobbik faced strong headwind during the campaign. Jobbik was often intentionally left out from news broadcasts and received only minimum coverage in several media outlets, it added.

“All the above increases the value of the results we achieved because even amidst such circumstances we managed to win the trust of one million voters,” MP Tibor Bana, Jobbik’s delegate to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said.

“We are eagerly waiting for Fidesz’s responses to the report’s observations,” he added.

According to the report, the general election was “efficiently administered” and offered voters a “diverse choice”, but the ruling Fidesz party enjoyed an “undue advantage” due to “restrictive” campaign rules and “biased media coverage”. A number of key amendments adopted had negative effects on the electoral process, including removal of some checks and balances, the report said.

Source: MTI