Election 2014 – Vote Recount In Budapest Swing District Makes No Change In Outcome

(MTI) – Votes were recounted in parts of Budapest’s 15th voting district where the result of the general election was very close, but the outcome has not changed, the National Election Committee said on Wednesday.

The Committee ordered a recount at two polling stations of the eastern Budapest district, on grounds that based on testimonies of vote-counting committee members, some invalid votes had been accepted at the first counting. For example, ballots where only the name of the candidate was underlined but a cross was not put in the box indicated had been mistakenly included as a valid vote. In another case, votes cast in black ink had not been accepted, whereas they should have been, according to another testimony.

A victory has been declared for the Fidesz’s candidate, Laszlo Kucsak, finishing only 60 votes ahead of the leftist opposition’s candidate Agnes Kunhalmi last Sunday. After the recount Kunhalmi has two more votes and Kucsak two less, reducing the gap between them to 56, with Kucsak still the winner of the mandate.

Fidesz holds a total of 133 seats in the 199-seat new parliament, or 67 percent, which gives it a supermajority.

Photo: MTI

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