But the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights non-governmental organization, warned that the voter tourism law “created the risk that many voters will re-register in the same constituencies where close races are expected, with the intention of overturning the election results.” The Warsaw-based European Forum for Democratic Elections, a coalition of a dozen independent European citizen election observer organizations, has also pointed out the danger of this behaviorsaying “it may not only distort election results but may determine ‘battlefield districts.'”
Additional Hungarian voters around
In a quest for more votes and seats ahead of the 2014 elections, Orbán granted citizenship and voting rights to an estimated 2 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries. And over the years, hundreds of thousands living in what was part of Hungary before World War I have accepted that offer.
These voters tend to be older and tend to have anonymous complaints about Hungary’s territorial losses after the war. Up to almost 90 percent of they tend to vote for Fidesz, which has plowed hundreds of millions of euros into their communities. And with around 500,000 registered voters out of Hungary’s nearly 8 million eligible voters – they can make a difference.
Furthermore, voting is easier for Hungarians living abroad. They can vote by mail. “It has been proven that there have been organizations closely tied to the ruling party that have been going around collecting these votes, you know, envelopes and ballots to pass them. This is documented,” said Péter Kramer, a veteran election observer who works in the European Union.
For Hungarian immigrants further afield, who tend to be young and favor opposition parties, voting is more difficult. They have to vote on ambassadors and ambassadors and remove many checks. Kramer told POLITICO the result is that there is “a large turnout of about 50 percent by Hungarians living abroad, with 90 to 95 percent of their votes going to Fidesz. But the turnout of Hungarian immigrants is low, about 20 to 25 percent.”
Buying lots (including potatoes)
When all of the above is not enough, there have been accusations of outright vote buying. This phenomenon is sometimes called “Distribution of potatoes” – or distribution of potatoes – in Hungarian, as critics say sometimes food is given to poor districts such as Roma communities. In 2020, a far-right member of parliament he was fined for throwing a sack of potatoes on Orbán’s desk, accusing him of buying votes.
