Voting System Of Hungary Erettsegi Topic

POLITICAL SYSTEM OF HUNGARY

What kind of a political system?

• Parliamentary democracy → • Government is responsible to Parliament (only parliament can remove government)

• President is weak and has no control over government (unlike in Presidential systems).

• Parliament is the main law-making body

• Parliament is elected by the people every 4 years (free elections).

Voting system

• Free elections are… • Equal (1 man = 1 vote)

• General (basically everybody over 18 can vote)

• Direct (votes count directly)

• Secret (nobody knows who you vote for)

Voting systems in the World

1. Single-winner methods (winner-take-all):

One constituency (district) → one winner

2. Proportional methods:

Parties set up lists and every party receives mandates (number of MPs) in proportion with the votes it received

• Single-winner methods:

- Disadvantage: disproportionate

- Advantage: strong and stable

government

(example: United Kingdom,

2005 elections)

Votes received

39%

36%

25%

Labour

Conservative

Liberal Democrats

Seats in Parliament

58%32%

10%

Labour

Conservative

Liberal Democrats

• Proportional methods:

- Disadvantage: unstable

governments

- Advantage: proportionate

Dutch parliament, 2006

16%

13%

10%8%3%16%

13%

10%8% 3%

(Christen-DemocratischAppèl, CDA)

(Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)

(Socialistische Partij, SP)

(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid enDemocratie, VVD)

(Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV)

(Christen-DemocratischAppèl, CDA)

(Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)

(Socialistische Partij, SP)

(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid enDemocratie, VVD)

(Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV)

Major Hungarian political parties

• MSZP – Hungarian Szocialist Party

• Fidesz – Alliance of Young Democrats

• KDNP – Christian Democratic Party

• SZDSZ – Alliance of Free Democrats

• MDF – Hungarian Democratic Forum

Fidesz and KDNP are allied and are usually indicated as Fidesz-KDNP

Hungarian voting system

• Mixed:

proportional (party lists)

and

single-winner (districts)

PARLIAMENT

Constituencies(Districts)176 MPs

Party lists(territorial

and national)210 MPs

Single-memberConstiuencies

I.

• Here you vote for a person. This is how your ballot looks like:

Constituencies II.• 176 individual districts,

every party has one candidate

• There are independent candidates

• You need 750 „recommendations” (kopogtató cédula) to compete

• There is only 1 winner in each district!

• 1st round: 50%+1 vote needed to get the mandate (majority)

• 2nd round: only the first three candidates (or the ones getting min. 15%) can participate and the candidate receiving the most votes gets the mandate (plurality)

• Example:

Elections in 2006

Party lists I. – territorial lists

1. Territorial lists

• Here you vote for a political party!

• There are 20 territories – the 19 counties + Budapest.

• Only political parties may compete!

• Every party that runs candidates (has collected at least 750 recommendations) in at least 25% of the territory → Territorial list.

(Example: in the Budapest district there are 32 single-member constituencies, i.e. 32 possibilities to run candidates. For a territorial list a party has to run at least 8 candidates)

• Maximum 152 mandates can be distributed. You receive a mandate in a territory after accomplishing a certain number of votes.

(Example: 28 mandates can be distributed in Budapest. Ca. 1 million people voted. This means that you need ca. 35.000 votes for 1 mandate. If you received 105.000 votes, you receive 3 mandates.)

Territorial lists

Results of the

Fidesz-KDNP list by county (2006)

Results of the MSZP list by county (2006)

Party lists II. - National lists

Votes NOT receiving a mandate are called fragment votes.

Example: in the territory of Budapest you need 35.000 votes to get a mandate. Your party gets 50.000 votes in Budapest, therefore you only get 1 mandate on the territorial list. But what happens to the remaining 15.000 votes? They go to another list:

2. National list• The fragment votes from the territorial lists and the single-member

constituencies are collected here – votes that did not get a mandate there can become mandates here.

• A minimum of 58 mandates are distributed here.• Only political parties may set up a national list…..if they have set up at least 7

territorial lists.

Election system: summary

176 mandates

VOTERS

Territorial lists

Single-memberconstituencies

National list

PARLIAMENT (386 members)

Vote No. 1.: for a candidate (person)

Vote No. 2.: for a party list

Fragment votes

58 mandates (min.)

152 mandates

(max.)

And…the threshold

• A party may only get into parliament if it receives a minimum of 5% of all the votes (on the party list).

• So if 6 million people cast their vote, your party needs at least 300.000 votes to get into Parliament.

Composition of the Parliamentof Hungary

•

Comprehension questions• What is a parliamentary democracy?• What are the conditions for free elections?• What voting systems do we know about?• What are the dis/advantages of the different systems?• How many votes does a voter cast at the Hungarian national

elections? • How many seats are there in the Hungarian Parliament?• What do you need „recommendations” (kopogtató cédula) for?• What are fragment votes?• What is a mandate?• What is a single-member constituency• Can individuals set up territorial lists?• Can individuals, who are not party-members compete in single-

member constituencies?• What is the threshold? Why do you think it was introduced?

Links

• www.valasztas.hu The official Hungarian election homepage (English+Hun)

• www.vokscentrum.hu A large collection of results, maps, graphs, etc. (English+Hun)

• www.magyarorszag.hu/english A portal about Hungary, including elections, citizen’s rights, etc. (useful for everyday matters, as well)

• Summary of the election process:• http

://www.valasztas.hu/parval2006/en/01/1_0.html