Hungarian Parliamentary Elections
AS OF 2026-08-30 · 50 CONTESTS · parliamentary, 12 April 2026 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Every Hungarian parliamentary election from the Reform Diet of 1825 to April 2026: the county assemblies that argued serfdom away, fifty years of Dualism on a six per cent franchise, the Horthy decades, nine single-list ballots under the People's Front, and the electoral law that produced three two-thirds majorities and then handed 141 seats to somebody else.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-08-30
National Assembly seats
199
100 for a majority, 133 for two thirds
Elections since 1825
50
April 2026
141
Tisza seats on 53.2% of the list vote
Latest
2026
Tisza Party largest
The chronology
Every Hungarian parliamentary election, newest first, era by era. The nine ballots between 1949 and 1985 offered one list and are labelled as what they were.
The two-thirds years · 2014–2026
The 2011 electoral law halved the chamber to 199 seats, dropped the second round, and added the winner's surplus constituency votes to its list total. Fidesz won three consecutive two-thirds majorities under it. In April 2026 the same system delivered 141 seats to Péter Magyar's Tisza Party on 53% of the list vote, which is the first time it has worked for somebody else.
Tisza Party 141Fidesz–KDNP 52Our Homeland Movement 6
Fidesz–KDNP 135United for Hungary 57Our Homeland Movement 6others 1
Fidesz–KDNP 133Jobbik 26Hungarian Socialist Party–Dialogue for Hungary 20others 2
Fidesz–KDNP 133Unity 38Jobbik 23
The third republic · 1990–2010
Free elections returned in March 1990 and immediately produced the pattern that held for twenty years: every governing party lost the next election. A mixed system of constituency seats, county lists and a national compensation list gave majorities to whoever came first, and power alternated between the Socialists and Fidesz at every cycle but one.
Fidesz–KDNP 262Hungarian Socialist Party 59Jobbik 47others 2
Hungarian Socialist Party 186Fidesz–KDNP 164Alliance of Free Democrats 18
Fidesz–Hungarian Democratic Forum 188Hungarian Socialist Party 178Alliance of Free Democrats 19
Fidesz 148Hungarian Socialist Party 134Independent Smallholders' Party 48
Hungarian Socialist Party 209Alliance of Free Democrats 69Hungarian Democratic Forum 38
Hungarian Democratic Forum 164Alliance of Free Democrats 92Independent Smallholders' Party 44
One list · 1949–1985
Nine elections in thirty-six years, none of them contests. Voters were handed a single list from the People's Front and asked to approve it; approval ran between 96 and 99% and turnout was reported above 94% every time. From 1966 a constituency could in principle field two candidates from the same front, which changed the seating plan and nothing else.
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 288others 99
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 252Independents 100
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 215Independents 137
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 224Independents 128
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 259Independents 90
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 252Independents 88
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party 276Independents 62
Hungarian Working People's Party 206Independents 92
Hungarian Working People's Party 285Independent Smallholders Party 62National Peasant Party 39
Between the armies · 1944–1947
The Provisional National Assembly of 1944 was assembled at public meetings in Soviet-held territory. The 1945 election that followed was the freest Hungary had ever held and was won outright by the Smallholders with 57%, which the Communists answered by carving the state up anyway. By 1947 the Communists were running the interior ministry and the count, and the election is remembered by the blue ballot papers that let their supporters vote in constituencies where they did not live.
Hungarian Communist Party 79Democratic People's Party 58Independent Smallholders Party 54others 60
Independent Smallholders Party 245Hungarian Communist Party 70Social Democratic Party of Hungary 69
Hungarian Communist Party 166Social Democratic Party of Hungary 125Independent Smallholders Party 124
The Horthy era · 1920–1939
Hungary emerged from war, revolution and Trianon as a kingdom without a king, governed by an admiral without a navy. Elections continued, on a franchise that was secret in Budapest and open in the countryside, and the government party won all six of them. The last, in 1939, brought the Arrow Cross into parliament with the third largest vote.
Party of Hungarian Life 181Arrow Cross Party 29Independent Smallholders Party 14
Party of National Unity 164Independent Smallholders Party 22Christian Economic and Social Party 14
Unity Party 149Christian Economic and Social Party 32Independents 16
Unity Party 140Independents 26Social Democratic Party of Hungary 25
Dualism · 1861–1910
The Compromise of 1867 gave Hungary its own parliament inside the Habsburg monarchy, and the parliament spent fifty years arguing about the Compromise. A property and tax franchise kept the electorate to roughly six per cent of the population, voting outside the towns was open rather than secret, and the Liberal Party won every election but two. The one it lost, in 1905, produced a constitutional crisis the crown resolved by appointing a government the chamber had rejected.
National Party of Work 256Independence Kossuth Party of '48 54Justh Party of Independence and '48 44
Party of Independence and '48 250National Constitution Party 75Catholic People's Party 34
Party of Independence and '48 168Liberal Party 157Catholic People's Party 25
Liberal Party 280Party of Independence and '48 76Catholic People's Party 22
Liberal Party 291Party of Independence and '48 48National Party 33
Liberal Party 245'48ers Party of Independence 87National Party 62
Liberal Party 256'48ers Party of Independence 79Moderate Opposition 47
Liberal Party 235Party of Independence 76Moderate Opposition 59
Liberal Party 236Party of Independence 91Moderate Opposition 70
Liberal Party 237United Opposition 82Party of Independence 69
Liberal Party 328Party of Independence 28Right-Wing Opposition 20
Deák Party 252Left Centre 110Party of 1848 37
Deák Party 246Left Centre 112Party of 1848 36
Deák Party 268Left Centre 92Far Left 21
Resolution Party 170Address Party 160Independent moderate 1
The Reform Diets · 1825–1848
The Diet of Hungary met when the Habsburg emperor summoned it and was elected by the counties, which meant by the nobility. What the period lacks in franchise it makes up in consequence: these are the assemblies of Széchenyi and Kossuth, where the Hungarian language replaced Latin and serfdom was argued out of existence. The election of 1848 was the first held on anything resembling a modern register, and the revolution it belonged to was crushed within eighteen months.
Opposition Party 110Conservative Party 66Centrists 29
Reformers 114Conservatives 64Centrists 32
Reformers 112Conservatives 72Centrists 25
Reformers 116Conservatives 68Centrists 32
Royalists 157Constitutionalists 40Independents 22
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout since 1920
Above 90% at every election of the one-party decades, which says more about how the state counted than about how Hungarians felt. Free-election turnout has run between 56% and 79%, and 2026 was the highest of them.
The largest party's share
The winning list share has sat between 40% and 55% at every free election since 1990, and the seat share it buys has ranged from a bare majority to two thirds.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
92.5%
1945, of the elections with a recorded figure
Lowest turnout
56.2%
1998
Highest vote share
57.0%
Independent Smallholders Party, 1945
Most seats won
328
Liberal Party, 1875
Two-thirds majorities
3
Fidesz in 2010, 2014 and 2018, each on about half the list vote
Years without a contest
37
1949 to 1985, nine ballots with one list on them
How Hungarian elections work
One round, two tiers, one winner's bonus
106 constituencies are decided by simple plurality in a single round, and 93 list seats are shared out nationally. The surplus votes of a candidate who wins a constituency are added to that party's list total, so coming first is rewarded twice. It is the reason a party can hold two thirds of the seats on half the vote.
The law that changed in 2011
The chamber was cut from 386 seats to 199, the second round was abolished, and constituency boundaries were redrawn. Every election since has run under it. Read the pre-2014 rows knowing the system beneath them is a different one.
The People's Front ballot
From 1949 to 1985 there was one list, presented by the People's Front, and voting meant approving it. Approval ran between 96 and 99%. Those rows are marked unfree, because the result of each was known before the polls opened.
Open voting outside the towns
Until 1938 the secret ballot applied only in the larger cities. In the counties voters declared their choice aloud in front of officials, which is the single most important fact about every Hungarian election result before the Second World War.