2019 Budapest mayoral election

The 2019 Budapest mayoral election was held on 13 October 2019 to elect the Mayor of Budapest (főpolgármester). On the same day, local elections were also held throughout Hungary, including the districts of Budapest which will determine the composition of the General Assembly. The election is run using a first-past-the-post voting system. The winner of the election will serve for a term of 5 years.

2019 Budapest mayoral election

13 October 2019
Turnout51.47%
 
Candidate Gergely Karácsony István Tarlós
Party PM Independent
Alliance MomentumDKMSZPPMLMP Fidesz–KDNP
Vote 353,593 306,608
Percentage 50.86% 44.10%

Mayor before election

István Tarlós
FideszKDNP

Elected Mayor

Gergely Karácsony
Dialogue

Candidates

On 10 October 2018, István Tarlós announced that he will run for a third term as Mayor, after negotiating about his future role with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.[1][2] Also in October, independent publicist Róbert Puzsér declared his run for the mayorship, and published his manifesto Walking Budapest.[3]

Opposition primary

In December 2018, the Hungarian Socialist Party reached an agreement with independent candidate Róbert Puzsér about a two-round primary. According to that, there would be a first round (in February), where the socialists and their allies would participate, and a second round (in June) where the "candidate of the centre" would join them.[4]

The first round was conducted between 28 January and 3 February. Two candidates participated: Csaba Horváth (MSZP group leader in the General Assembly) and Gergely Karácsony (Dialogue, mayor of Zugló).

Budapest mayoral primary - first round[5]
Party Candidate Votes %
PM Gergely Karácsony 27 598 80.66%
MSZP Csaba Horváth 6 535 19.1%
Total votes 34 214 100.0%

After the first round, a second round between Karácsony and Puzsér was planned in July. Opposition parties Politics Can Be Different and Jobbik endorsed Puzsér, with the condition that he takes part in the primary. Multiple forums and debates were held between the two, but on 8 April Puzsér announced he would not take part, citing a recent agreement about district mayoral candidates which did not include the parties supporting him.

The European Parliament election caused a major change in the balance of power, as the Socialists-Dialogue alliance gained only 6% of the votes, with the Democratic Coalition taking 16% and new party Momentum (M) taking almost 10%. This prompted Momentum to announce their candidate, entrepreneur Gábor Kerpel-Fronius (hu) on 3 June,[6] followed by the Democratic Coalition on 6 June, their candidate being television host Olga Kálmán.[7]

The second round was conducted between 20 and 26 June with online and in-person voting. On 23 June a televised debate was held between the three candidates on the channel ATV.[8]

Budapest mayoral primary - second round[9][10]
Party Candidate Votes %
PM Gergely Karácsony 33 356 48.9%
DK Olga Kálmán 25 093 36.8%
Momentum Gábor Kerpel-Fronius 9 792 14.3%
Total votes 68 363 100.0%

According to the organizers' self-imposed criteria, the primary was valid, as more than 50 000 valid votes were cast.

Opinion polling

Pollster/client(s) Date(s)
conducted
Sample size
Tarlós Karácsony Kálmán Kerpel-Fronius Puzsér Berki Thürmer Sermer Neither Don't know
Medián 2-4 Oct 2019 1000 48% 47% 5%
Iránytű 11-21 Sep 2019 1000 37% 35% 4% 1% 8% 14%
Nézőpont 11-21 Sep 2019 1000 53% 40% 7% 0% -
Publicus / Népszava 9–14 Sep 2019 1000 37% 34% 4% 0% 25%
Nézőpont 4–14 Sep 2019 1000 50% 42% 7% 1%
Republikon 5-12 Sep 2019 800 35% 34% 5% 1% - 25%
Závecz 2–5 Sep 2019 800 49% 45% 4% 1% 1%
Nézőpont 23–27 Aug 2019 500 51% 43% 6%
Publicus / Népszava 11–14 Jun 2019 800 27% 26% 5% 1% 5% 32%
28% 20% 4% 1% 8% 34%
28% 15% 6% 1% 10% 34%

Results

2019 Budapest mayoral election[11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
MomentumDKMSZPPMLMP Gergely Karácsony 353,593 50.86% N/A
Fidesz–KDNP István Tarlós 306,608 44.10% -4.96%
Independent Róbert Puzsér 30,972 4.46% N/A
Independent Krisztián Berki 4,045 0.58% N/A
Total votes 695,218 100.0%
MomentumDKMSZPPMLMP gain from Fidesz–KDNP Swing

References

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