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Absentee voters seen as an asset for the opposition

January 18th, 2022

According to the calculations of a liberal commentator, absentee votes may help the opposition win in 4 or 5 swing districts – which could tip the balance in the April election.

On Azonnali, András Sándor calculates that Hungarian absentee voters may tip the balance in certain key battleground districts, and help the opposition parties to a majority. The liberal analyst recalls that non-resident Hungarians (mostly ethnic Hungarians in the neighboring countries) can only vote for party lists, but not in single seat constituencies, while absentee voters who still have a permanent address in Hungary can cast a vote in single seat districts as well. Sándor notes that although the vast majority of non-resident Hungarians are Fidesz supporters, their over 200,000 votes did not change the final distribution of the mandates in 2018. By contrast, expatriates (mostly guest workers in Western Europe and North America) are more likely to support the opposition, and their votes might be decisive in as many as 4-5 closely contested districts, he calculates. It is therefore of utmost importance for the opposition to mobilize absentee voters, Sándor concludes.

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