Budapest mayor Karácsony submits proposal to repeat election to top court

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony on Monday submitted a proposal to the Kuria, Hungary’s supreme court, initiating that the results of the Budapest local election be annulled and the election repeated in the entire city.

Karácsony, who won the June 9 election by 41 votes after a recount at the request of his closest rival, Dávid Vitézy, said on Facebook that he had submitted the proposal, adding that “a politician … requesting repeat elections after he has won is unusual”.

During the recount, nearly half of constituencies delivered the ballots irregularly, and many constituencies opened the ballot boxes without the members of the election committee present, Karácsony said.

“I’m not saying abuse has actually occurred; I’m saying legislative guarantees on excluding abuse have been breached.”

“Guarantees to exclude election fraud are one of the most important safeguards of democracy. I have a responsibility to stand up for the protection of these guarantees,” he said.

Meanwhile, reacting to Karácsony’s initiative, Vitézy said in a Facebook post that if the court did not approve it, then the incumbent could resign and open the way for a new election to be held “at any time”.

He also said every candidate had the right to appeal the outcome.