The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-08-01 / 8. szám
by Dr. Victor IV. Molnár HUNGARIAN ELECTIONS This article is based on broadcasts from Radio Free Europe and Radio Budapest, plus the wire services of AP, UPI, and the Knight- Ridder newspapers. For the first time in 40 years of communist rule, the people of Hungary voted on Saturday June 8th for representatives to their Parliment and local councils in the first election under a 1983 law that requires at least two candidates to run for almost all the seats. The 1983 law is unique in a Soviet bloc country; it was pushed by their party leader Janos Kadar. The race for all but 35 Parliament seats had to have more them one candidate while the remaining 35 were “reserved” for “national personalities”, and these were Kadar and other leading party and government officials. All the candidates were required to si.' ; a pledge to support socialism. Despite some criticisms that the elections are not truly free and that some nomimations were rigged, the new law moves Hungary a step closer to democracy. “This is a real, solid change,” said a Western diplomat who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s a start and once you begin this kind of process, it becomes quite difficult to back off.” The diplomat revealed that other Eastern European nations are watching the election closely. “If it comes off with little disruption, and improves the image of the government, there are others who might be tempted to move in that direction,” he said, pinpointing East Germany, Poland and possibly Bulgaria. Last March Hungarian leader Janos Kadar make it clear in a speech to the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party Congress that Hungary has no use for more than one political party. But he told a Budapest election rally on Thursday before the elections that there is room to broaden democracy in Hungary. Steven Bela Vardy balanced and careful treatment of the main issues of Hungarian-American history. It is based on extensive and upto-date research studies that are cited by the author in footnotes and a very complete bibliography. Professor Vardy’s book is therefore recommended without hesitation both to the general reader and academic specialists in immigration studies. August, 1985 Hungary has already allowed noncommunists in Parliament, if they vowed to remain loyal to socialism. About 30 percent of the members of Parliment do not belong to the Communist Party. When the law was changed Hungarians first reacted cautiously. One newspaper reported that people were reluctant to run “if their chances of becomming elected were not 100 percent,” because losing meant a severe loss of face. The People’s Patriotic Front, the communistdominated organization that runs elections, proposed two candidates — not necessarily communists — for each of the seats in Parliment and for city, town and county councils. Others were nominated from the floor at two nominating meetings in the Spring. Voters, experimenting with a form of democracy for the first time, suprised th authorities. Of 766 candidates running for Parliment, 71 were grass-root choices, not originally proposed by the People’s Patriotic Front. At a nominating meeting in the town of Szarvas, a citizen complained that the Front, in proposing its two candidates, had overlooked the town’s most prominent son, Janos Fekete. Vice president of the National Bank of Hungary in Budapest, Fekete is credited with almost single handedly saving Hungary from bankruptcy in the early 1980’s, through his negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. as well as other foreign bankers. Another suprise nominee was Frigyes Púja, a former foreign minister and ambassador to Findland. Hungarian dissidents complained that some nominating meetings were packed, and votes were counted improperly to keep out certain candidates, particularly two dissidents, László Rajk and Gaspar Miklós Tamas. Besides the 352 members of Parliment elected from specific districts, 33 men and two women gained a seat automatically. They included Kadar, ten out of 13 Politburo members, plus prominent religious, cultural and youth leaders. Although a record 71 candidates ran without the backing of the Patriotic People’s Front, several voters showed little enthusiam. One woman in her 50’s said, “The whole thing doesn’t interest me a bit. My pension will not be increased, and my rent won’t go down either. I don’t care at al who is on the ‘list’ of candidates.” A man in his 20’s stated, “I voted, as I did five years ago, because it is my duty as a citizen, but I don’t expect anything to come out of it.” A young woman said, “It doesn’t matter which name I choose on the ballot, I don’t know any of them anyway.” Several Budapest residents said teams of election volunteers began going door to door by early afternoon, urging those who had not voted to do so. Voting was not compulsory. At a Fifth District polling station on the Pest side of the Danube River, volunteers handed out yellow ballots with the names of council candidates, pink ones listing those running for Parliament and blue ones listing the so-called “national personalities”. Voters asking for help were told to cross off the names of “unwanted candidates on the yellow and pink slips and to leave those of all “national personalities” on the blue slips before dropping them into the ballot box. On Sunday, June 9th the Hungarian News Agency MTI, reported that 25 independents had won seats in the 387 member Parliament. It had been the most open election since the communsits took power at the end of World War II. HUNGARIAN COOK BOOK in English-Attractive Covers $3.50 - including Pontage Bethlen Press, inc. P.O. Box 637, Ligonier, PA 15658 Support "The Eighth Hungarian Tribe" Magazine. Order A Gift Subscription For Your American-Born Children To Help Them Become “American-Hungarians”! S.B. Vardy’s THE HUNG ARI AN-AMERICANS. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1985. ($17.95 per copy.) NAME___________________________________________________________ ADDRESS________________________________________________________ I am enclosing a check (money order) for $ _________________ Check or money order should be made out and sent to: TWAYNE PUBLISHERS, INC. 70 Lincoln Street Boston, MA 02111 Page 7
