1998 Hungarian parliamentary election

1998 Hungarian parliamentary election

←  1994 10 May 1998 (first round) 24 May 1998 (second round) 2002  →
All 386 seats to the Országgyűlés 194 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	56.21% (first round) 57.01% (second round)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Viktor Orbán Gyula Horn József Torgyán Party Fidesz MSZP FKGP Leader since 18 April 1993 27 May 1990 1991 Last election 20 seats, 7.02% 209 seats, 32.99% 26 seats, 8.82% Seats won 148 / 386 134 / 386 48 / 386 Seat change 128 [a] 75 22 1R vote and % 956,008 (21.4%) 1,332,178 (29.8%) 594,023 (13.3%) 2R vote and % 1,706,155 (37.8%) 1,941,307 (43.0%) 275,857 (6.1%) Party vote 1,340,826 1,497,231 597,820 % and swing 29.48% 22.46 pp 32.92%0.07 pp 13.15% 4.33 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Gábor Kuncze Sándor Lezsák István Csurka Party SZDSZ MDF MIÉP Leader since 24 April 1997 2 March 1996 15 July 1993 Last election 70 seats, 19.74% 38 seats, 11.74% 0 seats, 1.59% Seats won 24 / 386 17 / 386 14 / 386 Seat change 46 21 [b] 14 1R vote and % 456,008 (10.2%) 343,089 (7.7%) 249,127 (5.6%) 2R vote and % 139,504 (3.1%) 356,891 (7.9%) 28,608 (0.6%) Party vote 344,352 127,118 248,901 % and swing 7.57% 12.17 pp 2.80% 8.94 pp 5.47% 3.88 pp
Results of the election. Proportional list results are displayed in the top left.
Government before election Horn Government MSZP–SZDSZ Government after election First Orbán Government Fidesz–FKGP–MDF

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 10 May 1998, with a second round of voting in 175 of the 176 single member constituencies on 24 May. ^{[1] [2]}

Although the Hungarian Socialist Party received the most votes, the then-liberal conservative Fidesz won the most seats. The successful breakthrough into parliament by the extreme right-wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party was also a major shock. After the election, Fidesz formed a centre-right coalition government with the Independent Smallholders Party and Hungarian Democratic Forum.

This was the last election since 1990 that all of the mandate gained parties ran separetaly and not as alliance in electoral lists.

Electoral system

The unicameral National Assembly (Országgyűlés), the highest organ of state authority, initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the prime minister. A party had to win at least 5% of the national vote (based on the total of regional list votes) to form a parliamentary faction. The National Assembly had 386 members, elected for a four-year term in a mixed system: 176 members in single-seat constituencies by a modified two-round system, 152 in multi-seat constituencies by party-list proportional representation (using territorial lists) and 58 members (using a national list) to realize semi-proportional representation.

Results

Party		Proportional			SMCs (first round)			SMCs (second round)			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	National	Total	+/–
	Hungarian Socialist Party	1,497,231	32.92	50	1,332,178	29.82	0	1,941,307	43.04	54	30	134	–75
	Fidesz	1,340,826	29.48	48	956,008	21.40	1	1,706,155	37.83	89	10	148	+128
	Independent Smallholders' Party	597,820	13.15	22	594,023	13.30	0	275,857	6.12	12	14	48	+22
	Alliance of Free Democrats	344,352	7.57	5	456,008	10.21	0	139,504	3.09	2	17	24	–45
	Hungarian Justice and Life Party	248,901	5.47	3	249,127	5.58	0	28,608	0.63	0	11	14	+14
	Hungarian Workers' Party	179,672	3.95	0	165,455	3.70	0	17,703	0.39	0	0	0	0
	Hungarian Democratic Forum	127,118	2.80	0	343,089	7.68	0	356,891	7.91	17	0	17	–21
	Christian Democratic People's Party	104,892	2.31	0	129,787	2.90	0	122	0.00	0	0	0	–22
	Hungarian Democratic People's Party	61,004	1.34	0	87,971	1.97	0	247	0.01	0	0	0	New
	New Alliance for Hungary	22,220	0.49	0	23,891	0.53	0	1,502	0.03	0	0	0	New
	Union for Hungary	8,786	0.19	0	13,599	0.30	0	347	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Forum of National Minorities	5,895	0.13	0	11,928	0.27	0	473	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Social Democratic Party of Hungary	3,504	0.08	0	11,845	0.27	0	213	0.00	0	0	0	0
	Hungarian Social Green Party	3,052	0.07	0	328	0.01	0	206	0.00	0	0	0	0
	Entrepreneurs' Party	2,409	0.05	0	8,874	0.20	0	1,054	0.02	0	0	0	–
	Alliance of Independent Civilians				1,789	0.04	0				0	0	New
	Green Party of Hungary				1,758	0.04	0	130	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Association of Independents				972	0.02	0				0	0	New
	Social Coalition for Humanitarian Politics				825	0.02	0				0	0	New
	Social Democratic Party				669	0.01	0				0	0	0
	Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party				515	0.01	0				0	0	0
	Women's Party				460	0.01	0				0	0	New
	Hungarian Gypsies' Democratic Party				290	0.01	0	264	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Hungarian Welfare Alliance				252	0.01	0	76	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Hungarian People's Party				184	0.00	0				0	0	New
	Party of Earth Dwellers, Life, Justice, Peace, Freedom				150	0.00	0	169	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Independents				75,965	1.70	0	39,154	0.87	1	0	1	+1
Total		4,547,682	100.00	128	4,467,940	100.00	1	4,509,982	100.00	175	82	386	0
Valid votes		4,547,682	98.97		4,467,940	98.59		4,509,982	98.74
Invalid/blank votes		47,529	1.03		64,103	1.41		57,404	1.26
Total votes		4,595,211	100.00		4,532,043	100.00		4,567,386	100.00
Registered voters/turnout					8,062,708	56.21		8,016,397	56.98
Source: Valasztas, Election Resources

Party list results by county

County [3]	MSZP	Fidesz	FKGP	SZDSZ	MIÉP	MKM	MDF	KDNP	MDNP	Others
Bács-Kiskun	27.51	28.99	20.06	6.17	4.58	3.26	4.37	2.42	0.81	1.83
Baranya	33.84	27.79	13.21	7.96	4.22	4.47	2.91	2.35	1.05	2.21
Békés	29.97	25.24	20.40	6.38	4.01	5.90	2.75	1.85	0.76	2.74
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén	35.88	26.24	13.26	5.56	4.70	5.65	2.31	3.69	1.26	1.45
Budapest	33.13	26.54	8.57	11.03	8.84	3.86	3.67	1.79	2.55	-
Csongrád	28.57	31.35	15.72	7.14	4.58	4.13	3.43	2.01	1.04	2.03
Fejér	35.12	30.09	12.74	7.01	4.22	3.61	2.69	1.95	1.11	1.46
Győr-Moson-Sopron	30.87	34.29	11.97	6.98	4.59	2.55	3.00	2.85	1.49	1.42
Hajdú-Bihar (first round, invalid) [c]	34.15	28.01	14.99	5.89	6.74	3.54	2.71	2.56	-	1.40
Hajdú-Bihar (second round, valid) [c]	39.35	40.09	9.08	2.91	5.69	2.25	-	0.62	-	-
Heves	34.96	23.76	12.50	8.08	6.07	6.44	2.77	3.55	1.30	0.58
Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok	34.78	24.77	16.35	7.27	3.63	6.51	2.05	1.98	0.70	1.97
Komárom-Esztergom	38.83	24.94	12.61	9.12	4.07	4.28	2.49	1.67	1.12	0.86
Nógrád	32.17	27.21	10.80	5.53	2.92	10.42	2.57	4.88	1.02	2.47
Pest	29.13	27.67	15.26	8.89	7.82	3.09	3.66	3.19	1.29	-
Somogy	35.41	29.92	16.44	5.07	4.01	3.30	2.10	2.09	1.21	0.44
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (first round, invalid) [c]	33.19	24.61	19.53	5.36	2.70	3.25	3.39	3.45	0.73	3.80
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (second round, valid) [c]	40.32	37.55	12.67	3.19	2.51	2.24	-	-	-	1.51
Tolna	33.03	29.61	13.72	6.68	3.01	3.07	3.55	4.29	0.90	2.13
Vas	27.57	35.51	14.29	9.16	2.62	2.35	2.94	3.51	1.35	0.89
Veszprém	28.69	35.03	13.43	7.48	4.14	3.03	3.13	2.29	1.61	1.18
Zala	27.27	32.24	17.65	7.50	3.70	3.15	2.53	2.69	2.00	1.27
Total (first round, including invalid) [c]	32.25	28.18	13.78	7.88	5.55	4.08	3.12	2.59	1.40	1.19
Total after the second round [c]	32.92	29.48	13.15	7.57	5.47	3.95	2.80	2.31	1.34	1.01

Notes

1. Including 35 deputies elected as joint Fidesz–MDF candidates.
2. Including 15 deputies elected as joint MDF–Fidesz candidates.
3. In the Hungarian parliamentary election system in force between 1990 and 2010, if the number of valid votes cast in the 1st round in a county did not reach 50% of all voters, then the list voting had to be repeated in the 2nd round in that county. The only example of this was in the 1998 parliamentary election, when in the first round in Hajdú-Bihar County and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, the proportion of valid votes in the proportion of all voters did not reach 50%.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p899 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p926
3. "Választás '98".

External links

• National Electoral Office