The Parliament's primary vehicles for holding the executive branch accountable are questions, interpellations, and the work of various parliamentary committees. In 2003, interpellations were organized at weekly parliamentary meetings. On the one hand, this was an improvement over the Fidesz-era practice, which was to hold parliamentary meetings only every third week. On the other hand, the fact that such limitations continue to appeal to all political forces is a warning sign of degrading parliamentary prominence. With the coming demands of participation in the European Parliament, it was proposed in fall 2003 to hold meetings every two weeks. In practice, however, the effectiveness of interpellations as a parliamentary check on the executive branch is unclear. Even if the Parliament rejects the answer, this rejection amounts to little more than a political grandstand in the absence of a compelling consequence.
The electoral law has not been altered significantly since its passage in 1989. Representatives to the 386-seat unicameral Parliament are elected for a four-year term by popular vote under a mixed electoral system; 176 members are elected in single-seat constituencies, 152 from regional party lists by proportional representation, and 58 from national party lists.
A second round of voting is required only in single-seat constituencies where none of the candidates win an absolute majority in the first round.
A political party must receive at least 5 percent of all votes to gain representation in Parliament.
The next Parliamentary elections will be held in April or May 2006, followed by local elections in the fall. Elections to the EU parliament will be held in June 2004.
The most recent national legislative elections were held on April 7 and 21, 2002, and drew unprecedented voter turnouts of 70.5 percent in the first round and 73.5 percent in the second. Only four parties cleared the 5 percent threshold for representation in the Parliament, the least number to do so in post-Communist
The narrowly divided 2002 elections (the smallest in Hungarian history) stimulated a heated political and public discourse. The center Left questioned the center Right’s commitment to democracy, while the center Right employed populist rhetoric and claimed that the Left worked against the interests of all Hungarians, including those living abroad. After the victory of the MSzP-SzDSz coalition, Fidesz, with its newly formed Citizen’s Circles—an organizational network aligning disillusioned right-wing voters—challenged the election results with a mass nationwide protest. The political polarization between the Left and the Right only deepened after the elections, further penetrating most areas of public life.
In the last elections, the parties’ support showed a distinct geographical pattern, with the Socialists and the Free Democrats doing well in
Minorities and women are still underrepresented at the national level. Out of the 386 seats in the Parliament, women won 35 in the 2002 elections. Three went on to serve as cabinet ministers in the MSzP-SzDSz government. Four Roma representatives won seats in the Parliament in 2002 as a result of preceding commitments and agreements between the two largest parliamentary parties in