I wanted to tell Mayor Gergely Karácsony all of this directly, but he won't answer my phone calls, so I couldn't do that. Every day I learn anew what this often mentioned republic of Budapest means to him - writes Dávid Vitézy in his Facebook post.

"The voting in the mayoral election ended at seven o'clock last night, but we still don't know the official final result.
I would like to state one thing in advance: if we have clarified all open questions, if we have examined all received suspicions, and the final result is that Gergely Karácsony won this election by even one vote, then of course I congratulate him, and we will represent him constructively along the lines of our program those of Budapest in the Capital Assembly.
But we are not there yet.
There are a lot of open questions and suspicions.

There were 24,592 invalid votes in this election, which is a record.

With 100% processed, Gergely Karácsony leads with 324 votes, so 76 times as many invalid votes as the difference between the two of us.

Based on the information we already have, systemic problems have arisen in some districts regarding the invalidation of votes, and the proportion of such votes was outliers in these districts.

I thank the 371,000 Budapest residents who voted for me yesterday. I also owe them the fact that I will not let go of the fact that in free and democratic Budapest every single vote must be counted and the final result must be announced afterwards. I hope Gergely Karácsony and the capital and district election committees will be partners in this in the coming days.
I am asking the Metropolitan Elections Office to preserve all votes, minutes and ballot boxes until the legal remedies are completed, to prevent all attempts at influence, and to enable this extremely close mayoral election to end in a way that is reassuring for all of Budapest.

I wanted to tell Mayor Gergely Karácsony all of this directly, but he won't answer my phone calls, so I didn't have the opportunity to do so - every day I learn anew what this so often mentioned republic of Budapest means to him."

Cover image: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák