Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990 TAG: 9003262055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BUDAPEST LENGTH: Medium
The Hungarian Socialist Party - the former Communist Party, which renamed itself last fall - appeared to have come in third out of 11 parties competing nationwide, the results indicated.
The Socialists were believed to have made a stronger showing than opinion polls had predicted. But the two leading parties have vowed to exclude the former Communists from what is expected to be a coalition government. It also appeared likely that the Socialists would become an opposition force in the new parliament.
Results in Sunday's elections showed that Imre Pozsgay, the best-known of the Communist reformers, won relatively few votes in his western Hungarian district. Pozsgay, 56, is considered likely, nevertheless, to retain a seat in parliament under Hungary's complex election rules.
In 13 out of 15 polling places where votes had been tabulated by late Sunday night, Pozsgay trailed behind Jozsef Szajer, a 28-year-old law professor running as a candidate of the Federation of Young Democrats. Pozsgay had about 20 percent compared to 30 percent for Szajer.
Except for the computerized reporting problems, no significant irregularities were reported in the voting.
Former U.S. vice president Walter Mondale, leading a 50-member international group in Hungary to monitor voting procedures, said there were no major problems. Turnout on Sunday was estimated at more than 70 percent.
Reporting of election returns was marred by a near breakdown in the computerized central reporting system in Budapest. Definitive results were not expected until later today.
However, officials at the national election headquarters here said that the "general tendency" in the voting gave the Free Democrats 25 percent to 30 percent, the Democratic Forum 20 percent to 25 percent and the Socialists 10 percent to 15 percent.
In what is perhaps the most complicated voting system in Europe, the parliamentary election is to be held in two rounds.
The second round is scheduled for April 8, and fewer than half of the 386 seats in parliament were expected to be decided in Sunday's voting.
In the week before the election, ethnic violence in the Transylvanian region of Romania had been viewed as a key factor in the contest between the Free Democrats and the Democratic Forum.
At least six people were killed and several hundred were injured there when Romanians attacked ethnic Hungarians.
Senior Free Democratic leaders were concerned that the violence might swing the election to the Democratic Forum, which had based much of its campaign on appeals to Hungarian nationalism.
Hungary was unique among Eastern European nations that underwent political upheavals last year. Reformers inside the Hungarian Communist Party, rather than demonstrators in the streets, were the catalysts for democratic change.
"This is the first happy voting of my life," Elizabeth Hajda, 52, a retired accountant, said in the rural Hortobagy region. "Our hands are not tied. It is a good feeling that we have a chance to choose."
by CNB