Local elections – Budapest Mayoral Candidates Cast Ballots

Budapest, October 12 (MTI) – Mayoral candidates for the city of Budapest cast their votes in Hungary’s local elections on Sunday.

Mayoral candidate for the Liberals, Zoltan Bodnar, declined to speculate on the percent of the vote his party would take after casting his ballot, but he said it had been worthwhile to establish the party and that there were people who identified themselves as liberal in the capital.

Antal Csardi, mayoral candidate for Budapest of the green opposition party LMP, said casting his vote that his party expected significantly better results in this local election than in the previous one four years earlier. He added that the party’s programme had been well received and that people were glad that the party was striving to solve Budapest’s problems.

Lajos Bokros, the mayoral candidate of the conservative Movement for a Modern Hungary, also cast his vote in the morning on Sunday but declined to comment for journalists at the polling station. He said he would make a statement in the evening.

Istvan Tarlos, the mayoral candidate for governing Fidesz-KDNP, encouraged the citizens of Budapest to make the time to vote after casting his own ballot. He said it was strange that there was no leftist mayoral candidate, only ones who enjoyed the partial support of the left. Tarlos said he was happy to accept any peaceful local council member, leftist ones, too, that believed that the capital did “not have to be mixed up in a senseless war” for the next five years.

Radical nationalist Jobbik mayoral candidate Gabor Staudt said after casting his vote that he would be satisfied being a runner-up at the local council election. He said the chances for a breakthrough in Budapest were good for Jobbik, but declined to comment on the number of districts in which he expects wins by the party.

Photo: MTI – Laszlo Beliczay

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