A second recount of the votes cast in the June 9 Budapest mayoral election left the original result unchanged: Incumbent liberal Gergely Karácsony won a second term in office with another slim majority, but slightly above the one from a previous recount.
Although the official results are yet to be published, political analyst Dániel Deák unofficially announced the result in a social media post.
“Bad news for Budapest: The Gyurcsány-world will remain in the (Hungarian) capital!” Deák wrote.
In his comment, he was referring to former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, who, together with his Democratic Coalition party are widely believed to be the real power behind the mayor, while Karácsony’s own, increasingly marginalized Green LMP party is somewhat insignificant.
The result sees Karácsony’s lead increase slightly (from 41 votes so far), but compared to the more than 350,000 votes both candidates received, this is still a negligible amount, with the incumbent mayor actually winning by only a whisker.
This was the second recount, as the first results showed that Gergely Karácsony won the election by slightly more than 300 votes. His opponent, Dávid Vitézy, then requested a recount of the invalid votes, which reduced the difference to 41 votes. Now, however, all the votes cast have been recounted, bringing the difference back to around 200 votes. The official results will be announced later on Friday.
