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Low turnout will nullify Hungarian vote on refugees, initial results suggest
Source: The Guardian
Low turnout will nullify Hungarian vote on refugees, initial results suggest
Prime minister Viktor Orbán appears to have failed to convince
requisite 50% of voters to cast ballot in referendum on admission
of refugees
Patrick Kingsley in Budapest
Sunday 2 October 2016 18.25 BST
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, appears to have failed to convince a majority of his country to participate in a referendum on refugees, undermining his self-professed campaign for a cultural counter-revolution within the EU.
Final data has yet to be released, and the vast majority of participants in Sunday’s poll are likely to have sided with Orbán by voting against the admission of refugees to Hungary. But, despite the government having mounted the largest advertising campaign in Hungarian history, initial results suggested that more than half of the electorate have stayed away from the polls, rendering the process constitutionally null and void.
“They will not even approach the 50% threshold,” said Róbert László, an elections and polling specialist at the Political Capital Institute, a Budapest-based thinktank. “They’ve failed this challenge.”
The projected result is likely to come as a relief to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and EU officials in Brussels, whose refugee policies and political outlook have been under sustained assault from Orbán in recent months.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Prime minister Viktor Orbán appears to have failed to convince
requisite 50% of voters to cast ballot in referendum on admission
of refugees
Patrick Kingsley in Budapest
Sunday 2 October 2016 18.25 BST
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, appears to have failed to convince a majority of his country to participate in a referendum on refugees, undermining his self-professed campaign for a cultural counter-revolution within the EU.
Final data has yet to be released, and the vast majority of participants in Sunday’s poll are likely to have sided with Orbán by voting against the admission of refugees to Hungary. But, despite the government having mounted the largest advertising campaign in Hungarian history, initial results suggested that more than half of the electorate have stayed away from the polls, rendering the process constitutionally null and void.
“They will not even approach the 50% threshold,” said Róbert László, an elections and polling specialist at the Political Capital Institute, a Budapest-based thinktank. “They’ve failed this challenge.”
The projected result is likely to come as a relief to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and EU officials in Brussels, whose refugee policies and political outlook have been under sustained assault from Orbán in recent months.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/hungarian-vote-on-refugees-will-not-take-place-suggest-first-poll-results