Election 2014 – Long waits for some registered to vote away from home districts

Budapest, April 6 (MTI) – The large number of voters who registered to vote outside of their home districts this election has caused long lines at some polling stations, election officials told MTI today.

The head of the National Election Office (NVI), Ilona Palffy, said lines were long in a number of Budapest’s districts, with waits in some places shorter than half an hour, but as long as one and a half hours in others. She said the largest number of voters registered to vote outside of their home districts — some 5,700 — was in the capital’s eleventh district.

Voters in Szeged, in southeast Hungary, registered outside of their home districts for the election had to wait more than one hour early in the afternoon before they got to the ballot box, MTI’s correspondent there said.

In Pecs, in the southwest, voters registered to participate in the election outside of their home districts, had to wait up to an hour, said local election office chief Andras Gondoc.

Szeged and Pecs both have big universities that draw students from around the country.

Gergely Gulyas, an MP of governing Fidesz, responded to the reports of long waits for voters casting ballots outside of their home districts saying voting in these districts was accelerating with the involvement of more committees.

Photo: MTI

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