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 were elected with a party-list method.

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 in order to win district mayoral positions. 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.
The final result of the election finally justified the criticism. Index.hu calculated that under the old electoral system the Fidesz would have had only 16 mandates 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.

Mayor

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

District mayors

DistrictElected mayorPartyNumber of votes for winner
I.Gábor Tamás NagyFidesz–KDNP5 914
II.Zsolt LángFidesz–KDNP18 733
III.Balázs BúsFidesz–KDNP23 615
IV.Zsolt WintermantelFidesz–KDNP18 276
V.Péter SzentgyörgyvölgyiFidesz–KDNP5 621
VI.Zsófia HassayFidesz–KDNP5 686
VII.Zsolt VattamányFidesz–KDNP7 089
VIII.Máté KocsisFidesz–KDNP10 674
IX.János BácskaiFidesz–KDNP7 954
X.Róbert KovácsFidesz–KDNP10 585
XI.Tamás HoffmannFidesz–KDNP25 777
XII.Zoltán PokorniFidesz–KDNP13 893
XIII.József TóthMSZP28 140
XIV.Gergely KarácsonyEgyütt–PM18 126
XV.László HajduDK11 294
XVI.Péter KovácsFidesz–KDNP16 064
XVII.Levente RizFidesz–KDNP18 887
XVIII.Attila UghyFidesz–KDNP15 202
XIX.Péter GajdaMSZP13 858
XX.Ákos SzabadosMSZP–DK–Együtt–PM10 564
XXI.Lénárd BorbélyFidesz–KDNP12 158
XXII.Ferenc KarsayFidesz–KDNP8 964
XXIII.Ferenc GeigerIndependent3 061

Distribution of compensation seats

Compensation seats were distributed using the D'Hondt method.
PartyVotes for losing candidatesAdditional seats
MSZP66 1313
Fidesz–KDNP52 7812
Jobbik40 5901
DK38 6241
Együtt–PM38 3801
LMP32 0591