By News AgenciesPublished On 12 Apr 202612 Apr 2026Polls have opened in Hungary’s parliamentary elections, with incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orban facing his biggest electoral challenge after 16 years in power.Voting in the election for the 199-seat parliament started at 6am local time (04:00 GMT) and is due to close at 7pm (05:00 GMT).Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listOpinion polls over the last two weeks have suggested Orban’s Fidesz party trailing Peter Magyar’s upstart centre-right opposition Tisza party by 7 to 9 percentage points, with Tisza at about 38-41 percent.Orban, a eurosceptic nationalist, has cast the election as a choice between “war and peace”. During campaigning, the government blanketed the country with signs warning that Tisza leader Magyar would drag Hungary into Russia’s war with Ukraine, something he strongly denies.“I am looking forward to Sunday’s election with the best hope,” Orban told supporters in his birthplace, Szekesfehervar.“If we know ourselves well, if we know our country well and if we know our own people well, then I must say Hungarians will vote for safety on Sunday,” he added.Many Hungarians have, however, grown increasingly weary of 62-year-old Orban after three years of economic stagnation and soaring living costs, as well as reports of oligarchs close to the government amassing more wealth.“I am very excited but also very scared,” Kriszta Tokes, a 24-year-old who sells postcards and trinkets in Budapest, told the Reuters news agency.“I know that my future depends on this,” she said, adding that she plans to leave Hungary if Orban wins.Former government insider Magyar, 45, burst onto the scene just two years ago, amassing support against the backdrop of economic stagnation, despite an electoral system skewed in favour of Fidesz. Advertisement In a final push in the …
