Hungarian parliamentary election, 2006

Hungarian parliamentary election, 2006

← 2002 9 and 23 April 2006 2010 →
All 386 seats to the Országgyűlés 194 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Ferenc Gyurcsány Viktor Orbán Party MSZP Fidesz Last election 178 seats 188 seats (together with MDF) Seats won 190 164 Seat change 12 24 Popular vote 2,336,705 2,272,979 Percentage 43.21% 42.03% Swing 1.16% 0.96%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Gábor Kuncze Ibolya Dávid Party SZDSZ MDF Last election 20 – Seats won 20 11 Seat change 0 11 Popular vote 351,612 272,831 Percentage 6.50% 5.04% Swing 0.93% 5.04%
Map showing winning or leading parties in each single-member constituency
PM before election Ferenc Gyurcsány MSZP Elected PM Ferenc Gyurcsány MSZP

Ferenc Gyurcsány
MSZP

Ferenc Gyurcsány
MSZP

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 9 April 2006, with a second round of voting in 110 of the 176 single-member constituencies on 23 April. The Hungarian Socialist Party emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly with 186 of the 386 seats, and continued the coalition government with the Alliance of Free Democrats. It marked the first time a government had been re-elected since the end of Communist rule.

The unicameral, 386-member National Assembly (Országgyűlés), the highest organ of state authority, initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the prime minister. A party had to win at least 5% of the national vote to form a parliamentary faction. The National Assembly (Országgyűlés) had 386 members, elected for a four year term: 176 members in single-seat constituencies, 152 by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies (using territorial lists) and 58 members (using a national list) to realize proportional representation.

The election took over two days. On 9 April elections took place in every constituency, both single-seat and multi-seat. In order to get elected into a single-seat constituency, a candidate needs to receive more than 50% of the vote; in the 2006 elections, the victor received more than 50% of the vote in 66 of the 176 single-seat constituencies. There will be another election in the remaining 110 single-seat constituencies in the 2nd round, in which all but the top three candidates (and every candidate reaching 15%) from the 1st round are excluded. Usually parties form alliances between the two rounds and withdraw many of their 3rd place candidates and call for supporting the allied party so the winning candidate of the 2nd round will receive more than 50% of the vote. However, this process is not automatic; it is grounded by negotiations.

The multi-seat elections also took place during the first round of voting. 146 of the 152 seats were filled using proportional representation. The remaining 6 were added to the national list. The country was divided into 20 regions for the multi-seat elections with varying numbers of members per region. Where a party won more members in a regional than it merited, the surplus votes were deducted from the total it received in the second round. Correspondingly, a party that received fewer seats than it merited had the shortfall votes added to its total in the second round.