Technical Snafus Could Delay Runoff in Hungary

More than 48 hours after Hungarians voted in their first multi-party elections since 1945, technical breakdowns and hints of official foot-dragging were still preventing a final vote count Tuesday.

The delays were so widespread that National Election Committee officials are considering postponing the second round of balloting now scheduled for April 8, Hungarian Radio reported.

Runoff elections needed to decide 229 of the Parliament’s 386 seats could be put off to as late as April 25, the broadcast said.

The center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum had nearly 25% of the vote with 90% of the returns counted, and the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats was running a strong second with more than 21% of the popular vote.

But election committee workers said many precincts were reporting only the voter turnout and the raw percentages in the party popularity contest, leaving them in the dark about which candidates were ahead in most of the 176 direct-election races.

Hungarian voters were given two ballots when they entered the voting booth Sunday, one to choose a candidate to represent their district and the other to designate which political party they preferred.

Pal Kara of the National Election Committee told journalists that an investigation has been ordered to find out why so many voting districts failed to provide detailed information within 24 hours of the polls closing, as required by Hungary’s new election law.

Istvan Kolozsvari, a Democratic Forum member serving on the election committee, blamed Hungary’s antiquated telephone network for the delays.

Special computers installed in each of 11,000 polling districts nationwide were dependent on telephone linkups to transmit the results. Jammed circuits and poor-quality lines were still complicating the vote counting late Tuesday, committee workers said.