The respective leaders of the parties of the opposition – Photo: Facebook

Opposition primary election to start in mid-August

The opposition primary ahead of the 2021 general election will start in mid-August and will involve electing individual candidates for constituencies in a sinlge round and a prime ministerial candidate in two rounds, the parties of the opposition cooperation said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The statement issued by DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, the Socialists and Parbeszed said that a draft of the joint opposition programme would be submitted for social debate in May.

Voters will decide in the primary who they consider the most suitable candidate to defeat ruling Fidesz in all 106 constituencies, the parties said.

The primary will take several weeks from mid-August because of the coronavirus epidemic and all Hungarians who turn 18 by April 2022 can participate, the statement added.

Running in the primary requires collecting at least 400 supporting signatures for individual candidates and 20,000 for prime ministerial candidates. The six organising parties said they would set up a national committee for managing the primary within the next few days.

Non-party members can also run for candidacy if they declare which of the six organising parties’ group they would join in parliament.

This will be the first primary election in the history of Hungary, the parties said.

“Voters’ wisdom will guarantee that starting in 2022, we will not only change the government but also start a new era, creating a democratic, socially fair and environment-conscious and climate conscious Hungary characterised by cohesion,” they added.

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