Local elections – Campaign Starts Officially

Budapest, August 23 (MTI) – The campaign for Hungary’s local elections started officially on Saturday.

Hungarian President Janos Ader has set October 12 as the date of the local elections. On this day Hungary’s national and ethnic minorities will also elect local representatives.

The official campaign for the local elections starts on the 50th day prior to the date of the election under the election procedures law.

Candidates can start collecting recommendations by voters on recommendation sheets from Monday.

Under the new law, election rallies can be last held on the day preceding the day of the vote. These events do not need to be reported to the police in advance but it is the organisers’ responsibility to guarantee that order is maintained.

The new law on electoral procedures dispenses with the campaign silence but campaigning will be banned within a 150-metre radius of polling stations on voting day.

The opposition Socialists on Saturday urged Budapest residents to elect a left-liberal leadership for their city in October.

Csaba Horvath, leader of the Socialists’ Budapest chapter said that the party would soon publish a document that shows “mistakes, lies and unresolved problems” of the current city leadership topped by Istvan Tarlos as mayor.

Budapest has lost 12 hospitals, 150 schools, its valuable stake in gas company Fogaz and the City Park and Amusement Park under the current leadership, he said. Horvath pledged his party’s full support to Ferenc Falus, the left’s joint candidate for the mayor of Budapest.

Radical nationalist Jobbik said on Saturday that it will start collecting recommendations across the country on Monday. Budapest will be a difficult spot where the party will present its programme in full in September, said Gabor Staudt, the party’s candidate for city mayor.

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