Opposition Candidate Beats Communist in Hungary Vote

The nation’s largest opposition group swept to its fourth straight parliamentary victory Saturday in a special election, defeating the Hungarian Communist Party’s reformist candidate by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

Election officials in the western town of Zalaegerszeg said the candidate of the opposition Hungarian Democratic Forum, Gyula Marx, won 59% of the votes to 32% for Communist Party contender Istvan Gyorffy, according to provisional results.

The opposition Social Democratic Party candidate, Istvan Schein, won 8%, the officials said.

Gyorffy was a declared reformist, and the election for a seat in Parliament was regarded as a test of support for Hungary’s reform-minded Communist leadership.

Election officials in Zalaegerszeg said the turnout for Saturday’s vote was more than 63% of the 32,000 voters, the highest of this year’s by-elections.

The ruling party also lost three multi-party elections in July and August, when candidates backed by the Hungarian Democratic Forum triumphed by huge margins.

The four elections were the first free votes in Hungary since the Communist takeover in 1947 and a prelude to national parliamentary elections due to be held by next June.

The Communist Party is to map out its strategy for the elections next month at a congress expected to witness a showdown between hard-liners and reformers.

Leading reformer Imre Pozsgay was elected Saturday as acting chairman of a new group, the Movement for a Democratic Hungary, which organizers said is an umbrella group for all Hungarians who want to rid the country of its Stalinist past.

A coalition of opposition groups, which has negotiated with the Communists on ways to introduce democracy, will dissolve itself soon, opposition members said Saturday.

Imre Konya, a founder of the coalition of nine groups known as the Opposition Round Table, told Hungarian Radio that the body is no longer needed because the negotiations cannot not achieve anything more.

The talks, which began in mid-June, are due to end before a parliamentary session starting Sept. 26 to allow time for deputies to study the results of the discussions.