Róbert Sasvári, the president of the NVB, announced: 112 valid votes were found for Gergely Karácsony, 395 for Dávid Vitézy, and another 53 for András Grundtner.
On Sunday evening, Gergely Karácsony received 371,466 votes, Dávid Vitézy 371,142, and András Grundtner 38,942.
Dávid Vitézy appealed to the NVB against the decision of the Metropolitan Election Commission establishing the results of the mayoral election, and the NVB ordered the recount of the 24,592 invalid votes on Wednesday.
Let there be a new election, this is what I will represent - declared Gergely Karácsony to members of the press at a demonstration held in front of the building of the National Election Commission (NVB) after the recount of the votes for the mayoral election.
After checking the invalid votes of the mayoral election, the NVB determined on Friday evening that Gergely Karácsony won the election with 41 votes.
Gergely Karácsony stated that despite the favorable result of the recount, he is sticking to his decision, because the whole process was endlessly manipulative, full of political misrepresentations, tricks, and wiretapping.
Everything that undermines faith in democracy has happened, the mayor declared. He added: if we want to restore this, it means a new election, a new vote with the existing candidates.
Gergely Karácsony said: they are preparing to appeal the recount and request a new election.
"Thank you for the work of the National Electoral Office during today's recount," Dávid Vitézy began his post.
"I congratulate Mayor Gergely Karácsony on the results of the recount. In the end, the result was practically a draw, the difference is 0.005%, 41 votes in all of Budapest. But as I've been saying since the beginning of the week, even a one-vote advantage is decisive, and
thus, after the recount, the 41-vote advantage is finally with the incumbent mayor.
The recount I initiated was thorough and justified, as today's results prove. Many hundreds, in total, more valid votes were mixed in with the invalid ones than the difference between the first and second place. This shows a very serious vote counting problem. This may even justify a recount of valid votes that have not yet been recounted, because the difference between us is now only 41 votes," he wrote.
According to Vitézy, two more legal remedy procedures must be completed for the election result to be binding.
"On the one hand, Mayor Gergely Karácsony said that even if he wins the recount, he wants a new election in all of Budapest. Of course, I will face this from my side, if the competent bodies make a decision on this. In the light of the NVB's decision, it is important to point out that the hysteria and hysteria that Gergely Karácsony practiced in the last two days was completely irresponsible and immoral. He smeared and lied, accused public officials of crimes, insulted my constituents, just because he thought he was going to lose. I didn't join him in that, and I won't now. Karácsony made this desperate cut for one goal: his own political survival. Because it seems that if he could no longer use the City Hall as a springboard, he will now try it as a lifeboat for the DK and the MSZP," he continued.
" The other legal remedy procedure affects two districts led by DK, Újpest and Erzsébetváros. In these districts, the name of the withdrawn candidate was drawn out with almost invisible thinness, and there are reports that 0.3 and 0.5 mm pens were bought specifically for this purpose in order to deceive the voters. In connection with this, since the beginning of the week, a legal remedy procedure has been underway on my part. As I said at my press conference on Tuesday, it is difficult to see any intentionality behind the way these two districts handled the removal of the withdrawn candidate from the ballots, and as a result, twice as many invalid votes were cast here as in the other districts of Budapest. This legal remedy has been going on since the beginning of this week, it is in the appeal stage, it is being discussed by the National Election Commission today, and maybe later by the Curia as well. It is worth noting: if this DK action, which is on the borderline of trickery, abuse of rights and fraud, does not happen, many thousands of invalid votes could have been avoided in these two districts, and the result would probably be far from what we know now. Ferenc Gyurcsány's party should clearly assume political responsibility in this matter, and Gergely Karácsony should make it clear whether he knew about the abuses that took place on his behalf," he detailed.
"At the same time, the electoral process must end despite all such malpractices. The people of Budapest need calm after the intensified election campaign. As in the previous months, I will also strive to make Budapest a more livable and greener city. For my part, I will do everything for that. Whatever the outcome of the ongoing legal remedies, as I have said so far, I accept the final result of the election. If, despite Gergely Karácsony's appeal announced yesterday, there will not be a new election, and in the end, despite his promise made yesterday, he does not end up creating this election situation in October with his resignation, then in the Capital Assembly, I will look for the possibility of cooperation with everyone who, along the lines of my program, for the development of Budapest, with maximum constructiveness will be a partner in this," he concluded.
