Hungary’s Orban set for third mandate after rocky campaign
Budapest, (MILLAT ONLINE):Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Europe’s most controversial leaders, looks set to win a third consecutive term in office at elections on Sunday, despite a galvanised opposition tapping into voters’ discontent.
The strongman nationalist’s Fidesz party enjoys opinion poll leads of between 20 and 30 percentage points over its closest rivals Jobbik, a far-right party led by Gabor Vona that has been moving towards the centre, and the leftist Socialists with their candidate Gergely Karacsony.
Opposition hopes of an upset are pinned on a potential surge in turnout due to simmering displeasure with the 54-year-old premier, in power since 2010.
A mainly first-past-the-post election system that was designed by Fidesz favours it over the fragmented opposition parties, but polls show around 40 percent of the eight-million-strong electorate are undecided.
Polls also show a slight majority of Hungarians favour a change in government, while civil groups have urged nationwide tactical voting to foil Fidesz candidates.
“There is anger in the air, and danger for Orban if people turned off by politics in recent years vote en masse,” an analyst with Policy Solutions, Andras Biro-Nagy, told AFP.