In accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Procedures Act, the Ministry of the Interior handed over to the National Electoral Office population data until September 1, 2023. The NVI sent the data sets to the heads of local and regional election offices – read the office’s October statement.
Based on published data, the Chiefs of Electoral Offices determine the number of members of the Representative Body and the General Assembly to be elected by October 31 in connection with the 2024 general elections of local government representatives and mayors.
The head of the local elections office shall amend the electoral district allocation by 30 November of the year preceding the general election, if the population of the settlement rises above ten thousand or the number of individual electoral districts changes. Adjustment is also possible if the deviation of the number of eligible voters in an individual electoral district from the average number of eligible voters for each individual electoral district in the settlement exceeds twenty percent.
The settlements in which the number of states and the type of electoral change occurred are also published in a table.
Five districts in Budapest will also have a smaller number of representatives
Based on the table, due to the low population
- From Budapest.,
- Budapest V,
- Budapest XI
- Budapest XIV,
- And Budapest XV. The number of states that can be allocated in the region is also decreasing.
Therefore, there will be a total of eleven fewer seats. This is achieved by reducing the number of districts and/or states that can be obtained from the compensation list.
Other cities are also affected
Outside Budapest
- In Pécs,
- kasinbarkikan,
- Miskolc,
- In Szeged,
- In Gyor,
- In Eger,
- The number of seats in Szombathely is also decreasing.
It can make negotiations more intense
In response to our paper’s question, Tibor Attila Nagy stated this in relation to changes in the number of states
Of course, it can make the negotiations between the two parties more intense, if there are fewer local government representative seats available due to lower population numbers, because fewer seats (candidates) can be distributed.
The political analyst stressed, “Although in principle local agreements on local issues are reached by the opposition, national political negotiations and political considerations also play a role in local government negotiations, and the larger the settlement, the greater the outcome.” In small towns, agreement depends mainly on local party ties and local power relations, but national politics has a stronger influence on public life in larger cities, where a larger number of voters participate and the majority of opposition voters are concentrated in urban areas.”
Tibor Attila Nagy cited Miskolc as an example, “where the KDP decided to run a candidate independently against the incumbent mayor Pál Veres, who was previously supported by the opposition coalition. This jeopardizes the opposition’s retention of Miskolc, due to the split of the opposition vote.” Peter Markey Z, the 2022 prime ministerial candidate for the six-party opposition, will hold a primary election in the city.
The political analyst noted that national politics prevails mostly in Budapest at the municipal level, “Thus, in negotiations between opposition parties, national leaders and party board members participate in forming the opposition coalition in Budapest. This is not a coincidence, since the majority of opposition voters “Being here, the opposition parties are able to impose themselves better here, and that is why the balance of power in Budapest is of particular importance for the opposition parties and the opposition public.”
Currently, the two parties are negotiating as a package for the positions of city mayor, district mayor and local government representatives. The largest opposition force, the DK Party, is ready to support the re-election of Gergely Karacsony on the merits if it obtains a result relatively acceptable to it in the distribution of regions, meaning: it can significantly increase the number of mayors and local government representatives in DK.
Tibor Attila Nagy summed up the situation.
In his speech on 23 October, Gergely Karacsony pledged to bring together the Budapest coalition of opposition parties for local government elections within weeks. In our previous article, we asked the concerned authorities about the mayor’s commitment.
(Cover photo: Emilia Nemeth/Index)
