2014 Budapest Assembly election

The 2014 Budapest Assembly election was held on 12 October 2014, concurring with other local elections in Hungary. Voters elected the Mayor of Budapest, and the mayors of the 23 districts directly, while 9 seats in the assembly were distributed proportionally, taking into account votes cast for losing district mayoral candidates. This was the first election held under these rules, previously all seats (except for the Mayor) were elected with a party-list method.

2014 Budapest Assembly election

← 2010 12 Oct 2014 2019 →
All 33 seats in the General Assembly of Budapest 17 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader István Tarlós Csaba Horváth Gergely Karácsony[a] Party Fidesz–KDNP MSZP Együtt–PM Last election 17 seats 10 seats New party Seats won 20 6[b] 2 Seat change 3 4 2 Popular vote 277,873 118,693 56,506   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Erzsébet Gy. Németh Marcell Tokody Antal Csárdi Party DK Jobbik LMP Last election New party 3 3 Seats won 2 1 1 Seat change 2 2 2 Popular vote 49,918 40,590 32,059
Map showing district mayoral election winners by party colors. White stands for a winning independent candidate.

Background

Regarding the Budapest Assembly election, the Fidesz-dominated National Assembly amended the electoral law in June 2014 after an announcement by Fidesz politicians Lajos Kósa and Antal Rogán, half a year before the local elections took place. The amendment, according to analysts, was formed according to the current interests of the ruling party, since it forced cooperation between rival opposition parties (MSZP, DK and Together–PM) in order to win district mayoral positions (and thus Budapest Assembly seats).^[1] Only parties with at least 12 mayoral candidates could submit a compensation list. According to the Political Capital analysis think tank, this meant that the three largest opposition parties would have had to give up 7 districts, where all three of them run their own underdog candidate against the plausible Fidesz winner, while in the remaining 16 districts they cooperate and distribute among themselves in a ratio of 5–5–6. The Political Capital and the opposition parties criticized the Fidesz government, for amending the electoral law according to the current political situation months before the election, thereby reducing legal certainty and violating the ruling party's own adopted Constitution.^[2]

The final result of the election (see below) finally justified the criticism. Index.hu calculated that under the old electoral system (party-list proportional rules) the Fidesz would have had only 16 mandates (15 + the mayor) instead of the 20 it won, therefore, the government party majority would not have been behind Mayor István Tarlós that way in the 33-member General Assembly of Budapest.^[3]

Mayor

Main article: 2014 Budapest mayoral election

Incumbent Mayor István Tarlós was reelected with 49.06% of the votes.

District mayors

District	Elected mayor	Party	Number of votes for winner
I.	Gábor Tamás Nagy	Fidesz–KDNP	5 914[4]
II.	Zsolt Láng	Fidesz–KDNP	18 733[5]
III.	Balázs Bús	Fidesz–KDNP	23 615[6]
IV.	Zsolt Wintermantel	Fidesz–KDNP	18 276[7]
V.	Péter Szentgyörgyvölgyi	Fidesz–KDNP	5 621[8]
VI.	Zsófia Hassay	Fidesz–KDNP	5 686[9]
VII.	Zsolt Vattamány	Fidesz–KDNP	7 089[10]
VIII.	Máté Kocsis	Fidesz–KDNP	10 674[11]
IX.	János Bácskai	Fidesz–KDNP	7 954[12]
X.	Róbert Kovács	Fidesz–KDNP	10 585[13]
XI.	Tamás Hoffmann	Fidesz–KDNP	25 777[14]
XII.	Zoltán Pokorni	Fidesz–KDNP	13 893[15]
XIII.	József Tóth	MSZP	28 140[16]
XIV.	Gergely Karácsony	Együtt–PM	18 126[17]
XV.	László Hajdu	DK	11 294[18]
XVI.	Péter Kovács	Fidesz–KDNP	16 064[19]
XVII.	Levente Riz	Fidesz–KDNP	18 887[20]
XVIII.	Attila Ughy	Fidesz–KDNP	15 202[21]
XIX.	Péter Gajda	MSZP	13 858[22]
XX.	Ákos Szabados	MSZP–DK–Együtt–PM	10 564[23]
XXI.	Lénárd Borbély	Fidesz–KDNP	12 158[24]
XXII.	Ferenc Karsay	Fidesz–KDNP	8 964[25]
XXIII.	Ferenc Geiger	Independent	3 061[26]

Distribution of compensation seats

Compensation seats were distributed using the D'Hondt method.

Party	Votes for losing candidates	Additional seats
MSZP	66 131	3
Fidesz–KDNP	52 781	2
Jobbik	40 590	1
DK	38 624	1
Együtt–PM	38 380	1
LMP	32 059	1

^[27]

Notes

1. After the withdrawal of Ferenc Falus (hu)
2. Including a joint candidate with other parties, Ákos Szabados (hu)