HUNGARY/FILE: Live chain protest around parliament to protest against new electoral law expected to pass this week

Record ID: 327837

  • Title: HUNGARY/FILE: Live chain protest around parliament to protest against new electoral law expected to pass this week
  • Date: 19th November 2012
  • Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 19, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF PARLIAMENT AT EVENING WITH LIVE CHAIN PROTEST AROUND IT PEOPLE LINED UP OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT PEOPLE HOLDING BANNERS BANNER SAYING 'REGISTRATION: HUNGARY TRAMPLED UPON' BANNER SAYING '2014: END OF 'ORBANISTAN' [MOCKING OF PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN] PEOPLE HOLDING BANNER BANNER SAYING 'FREE ELECTION' PEOPLE LINED UP AND WALKING ALONG LIVE CHAIN PEOPLE HOLDING BANNER SAYING 'FREE ELECTION' MAN LOOKING AND HOLDING CANDLE MAN HOLDING CANDLE FORMER PRIME MINISTER FERENC GYURCSANY AND HIS WIFE WALKING ALONG LIVE CHAIN AND GREETING PROTESTERS PROTESTERS AROUND PARLIAMENT WOMAN HOLDING BANNER SAYING 'VIKTOR, YOU ARE CHEATING' (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER PRIME MINISTER, FERENC GYURCSANY, SAYING: "We are protesting against this new electoral law because according to this law the next election in 2014 in Hungary will not be free and fair. And we would like to send a message to all the Hungarian citizens that we have to tell Mr Orban that we do not accept what he does." DOME OF PARLIAMENT
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7X6YSRPCZTHPFHTVXFETRLZ3L
  • Story Text: Thousands of people lined up around the parliament in Budapest on Monday (November 19) night to protest against MPs passing a new electoral law that protesters say will curb democracy in Hungary.
    The ruling Fidesz party, which has already scrapped a two-round voting system in favour of a winner-take-all single round, is now proposing legislation that would mandate voter registration at least 15 days ahead of the next election.
    Critics say this would serve Fidesz' interests as it could keep away many hesitant voters, who make up their minds only in the very last days after hearing all the arguments. Over half of the electorate are undecided according to opinion polls.
    To protest the voter registration, former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, who now leads a small opposition party called Democratic Coalition, headed a live chain protest stretching all around the grand Hungarian parliament building. People held banners and lit candles along the way.
    Gyurcsany, who became famous with a leaked speech admitting that he had lied about the economy to defeat Orban in 2006, said the only aim of the measure was to help Orban get re-elected who is now endangering a democratic election.

    "We are protesting against this new electoral law because according this law the next election in 2014 in Hungary will not be free and fair. And we would like to send a message to all the Hungarian citizens that we have tell Mr Orban that we do not accept what he does, " he said.
    The government rejects this claim. They say the change is needed to take account of at least a million new voters who could participate in the next election.
    The newcomers include hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians living across the borders in central Europe, who were made eligible for Hungarian citizenship in one of Orban's symbolic first acts after taking power in 2010.
    According to the government, voter registration drive and plans to lower the bar for candidates to run would strengthen democracy and motivate more people to turn up at the polls.

    "In our belief, the principle of general and secret election is not breached by introducing registration and the new legal institutions. It will in fact increase the activity of voters," minister of state Janos Lazar said in his speech at the beginning of the parliamentary debate.

    "In the end a lot more people will take part at the elections in 2014 than you think and in the next years and decades a lot more people will use their right to vote. Furthermore, this step is necessary and indispensable because of the voting rights of the new double citizenship and it does not mean disproportionateness," he added.
    During the parliamentary debate that lasted several sessions in the past weeks, the opposition criticized the proposal saying its only aim was to cement Fidesz' rule.

    "One thing is certain that they [ruling Fidesz] wants to build a system that they think that it would help their election chances. They see no other aim," opposition Socialist Party MP Monika Lamberth said.
    Orban, last week in his regular Friday morning radio interview with public state radio, said he was often 'amused' by the current debate on the electoral law. He rejected allegations that the amendment would favour the governing Fidesz party saying that it gained its two-thirds majority precisely under the current regulations so it would favour them to keep it.

    "We have to change the electoral law not because it's in our interest but because we are decreasing the number of MPs by half, the Hungarians living abroad receive the right to vote, and we don't want those Hungarians working abroad to fall out of the circulation of the Hungarian democracy," Orban said.
    But analysts say that there are several problems with the law and not just the registration system. Analyst of the Republikon Institute, Csaba Toth, says that while the new law is not anti-democratic as such, it does have uneven tendencies and favours Fidesz. A recent amendment limits the campaigning by banning all commercials from television and the internet as well.

    "There is gerrymandering and we have seen examples in the United States of the popular vote winner losing the electorate college but that was like half a percentage point or one percentage point. But gerrymandering 4-5% point I think is unprecedented in democratic countries. Also the fact that there is a strong limit on election campaigning and also combined with the fact that there is a huge resource advantage, a very uneven advantage for the government I think if you look at all of them even if one or other of these institutions in a different format might exist in some other countries if you look at it all together I think this is a breach, an exception to what we are used to in democratic countries," Toth said.
    Analysts also say that the last two weeks are critically important in any election, with many deciding in the very last days, such as in 2010, when, tired from years of painful austerity under the Socialists, voters catapulted Orban's Fidesz into power.
    After years of grinding hardship and Hungary again seeking International Monetary Fund help to stabilise its indebted economy, an Ipsos survey in August said 4.2 million people, or more than half of eligible voters had no party to pick from. Analysts say it was just this group of disillusioned people, whose ranks is estimated at 1.5 million, that Fidesz seeks keep away from the polls in 2014.
    If they fail to sign up in advance for any reason, they will not be able to cast their vote or make an informed decision after hearing all the arguments leading up to election day.
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