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- Title: HUNGARY: Counting of votes started in first free election since 1947
- Date: 25th March 1990
- Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (MARCH 25, 1990) (REUTERS - BART NOONAN) GV ELECTION POSTER SV, CU PRIME MINISTER MIKLOS NEMETH ENTERING AND VOTING (2 SHOTS) SV OF JOZSEF ANTALL (DEMOCRAT FORUM) VOTING GV PAN GASPAR MIKLOS (FREE DEMOCRATS) WITH WIFE AND CHILD ENTERING POLLING STATION SV OF MIKLOS VOTING SV MIKLOS SPEAKING SV'S PEOPLE ENTERING POLLING BOOTHS AND VOTING 5 SHOTS SV OFFICIAL CLOSING POLLING STATION, TELLING PERSON OUTSIDE NO MORE VOTING CU PULLBACK GV, GV'S BALLOT BOXES BEING EMPTIED AND VOTES COUNTED (3 SHOTS) TRANSCRIPT FOR SEQUENCE NUMBER FIVE: "WE FIRST THOUGHT THAT PERHAPS THIS REGIME WON'T LAST FOREVER AND NOW THAT IT IS COMING TO END WE FEEL VERY RELIEVED AND EXTREMELY WARY."
- Embargoed: 9th April 1990 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAA79B3NCA2LKG65KD6MJ663TYJ
- Story Text: Counting has begun in the initial round of Hungary's first free election since 1947.
Unlike the recent East German elections where voting trends were known soon after counting began, figures in Hungary are not expected to be evident until late Sunday (March 25), but commentators expect a close result.
According to opinion polls, voters appeared determined to oust the communist who initiated democratic reform in hopes of gaining credit at the ballot box.
Before voting got underway, a last-minute survey pointed to a close race between two new parties -- the Liberal-Social Democratic Alliance of Free Democrats and the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum.
Gaspar Miklos, from the Free Democrats, said after casting his vote that he and other dissidents once feared the communists would be in power in Hungary forever. Now he is relieved, he said, but wary of the future.
Socialist Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth and Democratic Forum representative Jozsef Antall were among the 7.8 million Hungarians eligible to vote on Sunday. A Second round of voting is due on April 8. Sixteen hundred candidates from twenty-seven parties are contesting the 386 seats in the single-chamber National Assembly.
Under the complicated electoral system, 176 seats will be decided at constituency level by first-past-the-post voting over two rounds.
A further 152 deputies will be elected by proportional representation in the first round from party lists in 20 countries, including Budapest. The final 58 seats will be distributed by a tranferable vote system at national level. Only about half the deputies will be known after the first round. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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