Battle of Honey Springs

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 8 May 1994, with a second round of voting in 174 of the 176 single member constituencies on 29 May.^[1]^[2] They resulted in the return to power of the Hungarian Socialist Party, the former Communist party, under the leadership of Gyula Horn, who became Prime Minister. The Socialists achieved a remarkable revival, winning an overall majority of 209 seats out of 386, up from 33 in 1990.

The governing Hungarian Democratic Forum was severely defeated, falling from 165 seats to 38 for third place. It was also a disappointment for the principal opposition party of the previous parliament, the Alliance of Free Democrats, which failed to capitalize on the government's unpopularity and lost seats. Poor economic performance, apparent government incompetence and a certain nostalgia for the social security of the communist era appear to be the main reasons for the result, together with significant reform of the Socialists' policies, with commitment to the expansion for the market economy and continued compensation for the victims of communism.

While the Socialists had enough seats to govern alone, Horn decided to form a coalition with the Free Democrats, giving him a two-thirds majority. This was partly to assuage public concerns inside and outside Hungary over an ex-Communist party with an absolute majority, and partly to get his reform package past his own party's left wing.

Results



Party		Proportional			SMCs (first round)			SMCs (second round)			Seats
Party		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	National	Total	+/–
	Hungarian Socialist Party	1,781,504	32.99	53	1,688,835	31.27	2	1,943,757	45.34	147	7	209	+176
	Alliance of Free Democrats	1,065,889	19.74	28	1,005,658	18.62	0	1,221,069	28.49	16	25	69	–25
	Hungarian Democratic Forum	633,770	11.74	18	649,872	12.03	0	639,866	14.93	5	15	38	–126
	Independent Smallholders' Party	476,272	8.82	14	425,346	7.88	0	252,405	5.89	1	11	26	–18
	Christian Democratic People's Party	379,523	7.03	5	397,873	7.37	0	126,616	2.95	3	14	22	+1
	Fidesz	379,344	7.02	7	416,116	7.70	0	29,391	0.69	0	13	20	–2
	Workers' Party	172,109	3.19	0	177,416	3.28	0	6,268	0.15	0	0	0	0
	Republican Party	137,561	2.55	0	104,253	1.93	0	9,774	0.23	0	0	0	New
	Agrarian Alliance	113,384	2.10	0	132,173	2.45	0	14,544	0.34	1	0	1	–1
	Hungarian Justice and Life Party	85,737	1.59	0	67,162	1.24	0				0	0	New
	Social Democratic Party of Hungary	51,110	0.95	0	32,912	0.61	0				0	0	0
	United Smallholders' Party	44,292	0.82	0	43,186	0.80	0				0	0	New
	Liberal Civic Alliance–Entrepreneurs Party	33,367	0.62	0	42,951	0.80	0				0	0	New
	National Democratic Alliance	28,075	0.52	0	32,258	0.60	0				0	0	New
	Green Party of Hungary	8,809	0.16	0	4,766	0.09	0				0	0	0
	Compromise Independent Smallholders' Party	5,918	0.11	0	4,386	0.08	0				0	0	New
	Conservative Party	2,046	0.04	0	5,240	0.10	0				0	0	New
	Green Alternative	849	0.02	0	2,638	0.05	0				0	0	New
	Market Party	635	0.01	0	5,459	0.10	0				0	0	New
	ASZ–SZDSZ				9,280	0.17	0	9,613	0.22	0	0	0	–
	VP–ASZ				6,440	0.12	0	7,666	0.18	1	0	1	–
	SZDSZ–KP				4,664	0.09	0	5,494	0.13	0	0	0	–
	Gypsy Solidarity Party				3,282	0.06	0				0	0	New
	Independent Hungarian Democratic Party				2,366	0.04	0				0	0	0
	Democratic Coalition Party				2,117	0.04	0				0	0	New
	National Alliance of Hungarian Families				2,005	0.04	0				0	0	New
	Historic Independent Smallholders' Party				1,792	0.03	0				0	0	New
	VP–Fidesz				1,347	0.02	0				0	0	–
	Pensioners' Party				1,245	0.02	0				0	0	0
	Social Democratic Party				1,197	0.02	0				0	0	New
	Democratic Party				1,150	0.02	0				0	0	New
	EKGP–KDNP				840	0.02	0				0	0	–
	Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party				704	0.01	0				0	0	New
	Party of the Hungarian Interest				416	0.01	0				0	0	New
	Union of Hungarian Biomedicists				334	0.01	0				0	0	New
	Hungarian Mothers' National Party				265	0.00	0				0	0	New
	Electoral Coalition for the Hungarians				211	0.00	0				0	0	New
	Party for Historic Hungary				203	0.00	0				0	0	New
	Hungarian Party of the Unemployed				190	0.00	0				0	0	New
	National Forces' Movement				188	0.00	0				0	0	New
	Independents				122,190	2.26	0	20,134	0.47	0	0	0	–6
Total		5,400,194	100.00	125	5,400,926	100.00	2	4,286,597	100.00	174	85	386	0

Valid votes		5,400,194	98.44		5,400,926	98.46		4,286,597	98.77
Invalid/blank votes		85,344	1.56		84,692	1.54		53,299	1.23
Total votes		5,485,538	100.00		5,485,618	100.00		4,339,896	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,959,228	68.92		7,959,206	68.92		7,873,937	55.12
Source: CLEA, Nohlen & Stöver

Party list results by county

County^[3]	MSZP	SZDSZ	MDF	FKGP	KDNP	Fidesz	Workers' Party	Republican Party	Agrarian Alliance	MIÉP	Others
County^[3]											Others
Bács-Kiskun	26.70	18.07	12.82	12.36	7.63	6.57	3.00	1.87	3.38	1.60	6.00
Baranya	32.09	21.75	10.87	8.48	6.30	6.60	3.13	3.35	2.31	1.51	3.62
Békés	31.93	19.35	9.75	12.40	3.97	5.99	5.46	3.32	2.07	-	5.77
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén	40.12	16.26	9.60	6.93	8.89	6.95	4.31	1.79	2.14	-	3.00
Budapest	35.15	20.77	14.94	4.60	5.61	6.15	2.64	4.78	1.76	3.58	-
Csongrád	26.88	20.64	10.64	11.38	7.20	6.92	3.47	2.64	2.87	2.02	5.35
Fejér	33.37	19.52	9.85	10.42	5.62	10.01	2.63	2.88	2.03	1.59	2.08
Győr-Moson-Sopron	26.75	22.21	12.68	10.89	8.18	8.11	1.93	2.68	1.62	-	4.95
Hajdú-Bihar	35.47	17.49	10.49	9.91	4.77	8.04	2.46	1.59	2.44	2.29	5.04
Heves	34.61	20.84	9.68	7.45	8.76	5.63	4.71	1.35	1.73	1.44	3.81
Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok	34.97	19.39	9.57	10.27	5.12	7.41	4.74	1.63	2.02	-	4.88
Komárom-Esztergom	38.72	22.89	8.64	8.37	6.42	6.36	3.39	-	1.69	-	3.52
Nógrád	34.79	16.61	10.47	6.23	10.73	6.50	10.60	-	1.69	-	2.39
Pest	29.88	20.69	12.00	9.62	7.70	7.01	2.19	3.19	1.66	2.49	3.57
Somogy	40.60	15.42	9.03	12.37	6.49	7.42	1.86	1.25	2.24	1.52	1.79
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg	32.64	16.25	12.00	8.79	7.84	7.61	3.54	1.58	1.93	1.72	6.09
Tolna	31.25	18.07	10.65	8.25	8.88	7.92	2.59	2.04	4.18	2.09	4.09
Vas	25.83	25.63	12.31	11.32	10.54	6.99	2.15	1.44	2.60	-	1.19
Veszprém	29.00	22.31	12.23	10.44	7.74	8.04	2.10	1.26	1.94	-	4.95
Zala	29.37	18.87	12.35	13.91	9.81	7.66	2.13	-	2.06	-	3.84

Total	32.99	19.73	11.73	8.82	7.03	7.01	3.18	2.53	2.10	1.58	3.25

Notes

^ Kuncze was lead candidate for SZDSZ, but was not party leader
^ Boross had been Prime Minister since 12 December 1993, but was not party leader.

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p899 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p925
^ "1994. évi országgyűlési választás 1. forduló – Területi választókerületek listák eredményei". Archived from the original on 2023-09-07. Retrieved 2023-09-07.

[1] Kuncze was lead candidate for SZDSZ, but was not party leader

[2] Boross had been Prime Minister since 12 December 1993, but was not party leader.

[NS-3] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p899 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[4] Nohlen & Stöver, p925

[5] "1994. évi országgyűlési választás 1. forduló – Területi választókerületek listák eredményei". Archived from the original on 2023-09-07. Retrieved 2023-09-07.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Elections and referendums in Hungary
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See also: List of Hungarian by-elections