Economy 29 May 2024, 9:49am

Hungarian municipal elections 2024: number of eligible voters drops sharply

MTI

Some 170,000 fewer people are on the register for the local elections in Hungary than five years ago, according to the National Election Office (NVI).

On the day of the 2019 local elections, some 8.025 million people were on the electoral register, while in this year's election on 9 June, almost 7.855 million people will be eligible to vote, a decrease of 170,000 (2.12%), NVI data show.

With the exception of two counties, the number of people eligible to vote decreased in all counties and in the capital.

Declines of over 4%:

the largest decrease was in Békés county (-5.02% to 272.5,000 from 287,000), followed by
Tolna county (-4.71%),
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county (-4.57%) and
Nógrád county (-4.12%).

A decrease greater than 3%:

Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county (-3.91%),
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county (-3.81%),
Csongrád-Csanád county (-3.41%),
Baranya county (-3.31%),
Heves county (-3.2%) and
Bács-Kiskun county (-3.07%).

A drop of over 2%:

Budapest (-2.67%),
Veszprém county (-2.53%),
Hajdú-Bihar county (-2.36%),
Somogy county (-2.15%), and
Komárom-Esztergom county (-2.11%).

There was a decrease of over 1% in the number of eligible voters in:

Vas county (-1.95%),
Zala county (-1.93%), and
Fejér county (-1.33% or 4,617 fewer eligible voters than five years ago (346,000 vs. just over 341,000 currently).

In Győr-Moson-Sopron and Pest counties, however, the number of eligible voters increased. The largest increase of 2.7% was in Pest county, where the number of registered voters rose by 27,970 in five years, to 1.063 million from 1.035 million. In the county of Győr-Moson-Sopron, the number of eligible voters increased by 1.52%, to 376,000 from 370,000.

There are 1.331 million eligible voters in the capital, slightly less than 17% of the total, and the smallest constituency is Nógrád, where slightly less than 2% of the total (152,000 voters) live.

The number of eligible voters on 13 March, the day after the elections were called, was 7,879,941, which means that the number of people on the electoral register has decreased by about 25,000 since then. Most of them have passed away and a smaller group has lost their right to vote.

In the 2019 municipal elections, there were around 145,000 fewer registered voters than in 2014.

When and how long can you vote?

THE ballots will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on 9 june (sunday).

You can expect a lot of ballot papers, as the local elections are held simultaneously with the European Parliamentary election.

What will you need to be able to vote?

IT IS POSSIBLE TO VOTE IN THE MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS only WITH DOCUMENTS VALID ON THE DAY OF THE ELECTION!

For the 9 June elections, voters must prove their identity with a valid identity card, passport or driving licence, and their address and personal identification with a residence card.

you will not be able to vote with expired documents.

You find more information about the municipal election here and about the EP election here.

Cover photo: Getty Images