Tarlós welcomes broadened powers for Budapest mayor

Budapest, July 22 (MTI) – Broadened powers for the mayor of Budapest will allow the city’s management to be less constrained, István Tarlós, the current mayor, told commercial TV2 today.

Tarlós welcomed the Constitutional Court’s Monday ruling which accepted new rules on the election of the Budapest city council, with the exception of one smaller rule on the method of calculating votes.

The law was passed on June 10 and it has been criticised by the opposition for hurting equal voting rights. It states that under the new system, 23 district mayors will be elected into the assembly, as well as 9 councillors from compensation lists of votes which did not return a mandate. The top court scrapped the part of the law which would have used the method of weighing for ward size in the calculation of these compensation votes.

Tarlós said the most important part of the law had been approved by the Constitutional Court. He told TV2 that the mayor’s extended scope of authority is in the focus of this legislation and with “the minimum powers” now granted, it will be possible to run the city without excessive restraints, “whether the mayor is delegated by the right or left”.

Photo: csepel.info

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters