Enough Already--Hungary Wants Voters to Stay Away : Elections: Referendum on whether the president is elected or appointed would be the fourth in eight months.

The new democratic leaders of Hungary are hoping that apathy emerges as the winner in a referendum Sunday that will determine whether the president is elected by the people or appointed by Parliament.

The referendum, called reluctantly by officials bored by the prospect of another election, asks voters to go to the polls for the fourth time in eight months to settle an issue that could be labeled the Socialists’ last stand.

Unless at least half of Hungary’s 7.8 million eligible voters cast their ballots, the campaign for direct elections will fail.

That allows opponents to have their say by sleeping in or going to the beach, while supporters will have to forgo Sunday outings to answer a question they have already been asked.

Hungary’s former Parliament promised direct presidential elections last October, and voters endorsed the idea a month later in the first national plebiscite in the country’s postwar history.

Both the governing Hungarian Democratic Forum and the opposition Alliance of Free Democrats oppose direct presidential elections, primarily because former Prime Minister Miklos Nemeth, a Socialist, is considered most likely to win the post in a popular vote.

Nemeth continues to rank as one of Hungary’s most respected politicians despite political changes that have transferred power from the Socialists (formerly the Communists) to a center-right coalition headed by Prime Minister Jozsef Antall of the Democratic Forum.

In a move that the Socialists complained was in violation of the will of the people, the Democratic Forum and the Free Democrats worked out a behind-the-scenes deal in May to install writer Arpad Goncz as interim head of state.

The two biggest parties then railroaded through a constitutional amendment giving Parliament the power to name the president, effectively canceling plans for a direct public election.

The Free Democrats had earlier pushed for popular election of the president, hoping, like the Socialists, to capture a position that could boost their standing.

Head of state in Hungary is mostly a ceremonial post, but one that carries considerable prestige. More importantly, the president is seen as above the fray of day-to-day decision-making that in the turbulent transition to a market economy could backfire and discredit the governing party.

Goncz is a Free Democrat and a respected veteran of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against communism, making him acceptable to all major political forces. His appointment May 2 served to buy the Free Democrats’ support in the concerted effort to ensure that the Socialists do not regain any position of prominence.

Communist reformers guided Hungary through the transition from dictatorship to democracy, then last fall disbanded the political party discredited by submission to the Soviets and reshaped themselves into the Hungarian Socialist Party.

Although Socialists such as Nemeth and Imre Pozsgay are credited with bringing about Hungary’s “revolution from above,” the party won little public gratitude during the parliamentary votes in March and April.

The campaign for direct elections is spearheaded by the Socialists and some independent members of Parliament who contend that voters have been cheated of their constitutional right to decide who will be president.

They gathered more than 170,000 signatures on petitions demanding direct elections, forcing Parliament to set Sunday’s date for another referendum.

But the governing party’s opposition to the renewed issue is clear in a number of complications.

Zoltan Toth of the National Election Committee said Friday that the board is still searching for dozens of substitute workers to help with the ballot counting.

“This is a very bad time because everyone is on vacation,” Toth said. He also complained that the referendum has been costly.