Parliamentary Elections, 11 April 2010

Following an invitation from Hungary's Foreign Minister, ODIHR deployed an election assessment mission on 28 March to assess the parliamentary elections on 11 April.

Led by Nikolai Vulchanov of Bulgaria, the mission consisted of 11 election experts from 11 OSCE participating States. In addition to experts based in Budapest, teams were deployed to four regions of the country.

According to the final assessment report: "The 2010 parliamentary elections confirmed the democratic principles established over the past 20 years. The elections were conducted in a pluralistic environment characterized by an overall respect for fundamental civil and political rights, and high public confidence in the process. The competition took place on a generally level playing field, under a sophisticated electoral system. It was administered by professional and efficient election management bodies, including fully-fledged political party representatives.

"The legislative framework provides a comprehensive basis for the conduct of democratic elections. However, certain specific provisions would benefit from a review, most notably on full respect for the secrecy and equality of the vote, campaign finance, limitations on suffrage and timely implementation of respective decisions of the Constitutional Court."