"There has been great interest and a good atmosphere. We have not been able to see anything that indicates any strangeness at all," says Björn Söder (SD), who, together with seven other Swedish members of parliament, is observing the election.
By 5:30 p.m., Söder had visited eight polling stations, and at least two more are on the way. He has noticed the unusually high turnout.
"There has been a strong turnout the whole time. I think it may be because many people feel that for the first time in a long time there is a real alternative to the current government," says Söder, who also covered the election four years ago.
The polling stations opened their doors at 6 a.m. on Sunday. By 5 p.m., a record 74 percent of Hungarians had cast their votes, according to the Hungarian electoral authority.
The figure is comparable to the elections in 2022 and 2018, when the corresponding figure at the same time was around 63 percent, according to the Europe Elects platform.
“Here to win”
Both Viktor Orbán and challenger Péter Magyar cast their votes in Budapest on Sunday morning. Outside the polling station, the pro-Russian Eurosceptic Orbán said the election campaign had been a "great national moment for us" and thanked all supporters.
"I'm here to win," he said, according to the AP.
Magyar voted at another polling station in the capital. There, he said that his countrymen were now choosing between "East or West, propaganda or honest public debate, corruption or an open life in public."
"I urge all Hungarian citizens to exercise their right to vote," he said, according to AP.
Closes at 7 p.m.
The opposition, led by Magyar's social conservative party Tisza - which has promised to fight corruption and be a more reliable partner for the EU and NATO - is far ahead of Orbán's national conservative party Fidesz, according to independent opinion polls.
Both camps have made accusations of foreign interference during the election campaign in the Central European country of 9.5 million inhabitants.
Polling stations will be open until 7 p.m. Preliminary election results are expected later this evening or tonight.
Facts: Parliamentary elections in Hungary
Each voter has two votes: one for their own constituency and one for national party lists.
Of the 199 seats in the Parliament (Országház), 106 are elected via constituencies. 93 seats are distributed proportionally based on national party lists.
The electoral system also has a peculiarity, sometimes called winner's bonus, which is considered to favor large parties. This means that the votes that the winner in a constituency receives in addition to what was required to win are added to the party in the national count.
The result is that a large party can receive more seats than the number of votes would suggest. The system is considered to have contributed to Viktor Orbán's government party Fidesz gaining a two-thirds majority in recent elections despite a vote share of around 45–50 percent.
Special rules also apply to make it easier for 13 specific national minorities (of which Roma, Germans and Slovaks are the most numerous) to win individual mandates.
Parliament has a 5 percent threshold.
Hungary has just over 7.5 million eligible voters.
Sources: UI, NE.
Viktor Orbán (born 1963) has been the Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010 and leads the conservative Fidesz party, which at the EU level is part of the far-right PFE group together with, among others, the French National Rally and the Belgian Vlaams Belang.
Péter Magyar (born 1981) has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2024 and party leader of the opposition party Tisza, which at the EU level is part of the Christian Democratic conservative party group EPP with, among others, the Swedish M and KD.
