A large number of voters cast their ballots in the early hours of Sunday’s key election in Hungary, which could potentially spell the end of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule.
According to data from the Hungarian national election office, 16.9 percent of registered voters had cast their ballots by 9 a.m. In the previous parliamentary election in 2022, that figure stood at 10.3 percent at the same time.
POLITICO’s Poll of Polls projects a comfortable lead for Orbán’s challenger, Péter Magyar, and his center-right Tisza party. But polls have also diverged significantly and in Hungary’s electoral system, vote shares don’t necessarily equal final political weight.
Ballot boxes opened at 6 a.m., with the election office reporting a record 3.5 percent turnout within the first hour of voting. The polls will close at 7 p.m. and the first results are expected starting at 8 p.m.
The election office also reported receiving more than 293,000 postal votes by Sunday.