Hungarian opposition leader says "referendum" on Ukraine was rigged

Péter Magyar, a Hungarian opposition politician and leader of the Tisza party, has declared that a government "referendum" on Ukraine organised by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's team has been a failure.

Source: Magyar on Facebook, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Magyar said no more than 600,000 people took part in the vote and the results may have been falsified.

"This is the lowest turnout in the entire history of National Consultations. And this is despite the fact that the campaign went on for several months, with total mobilisation, and tens of billions of public money was poured into it," the Tisza leader emphasised.

He also pointed out that no voting booths were opened and no public meetings were organised. All that happened was that letters were sent out and an expensive advertising campaign was conducted.

Magyar pointed out that the government could have used the 10 billion forints (about US$28,6 millions) it spent on the referendum to repair hospitals or modernise the railways.

"This failed, corrupt government is not interested in people’s real problems and doesn’t dare to look them in the eye. They just write letters," he added.

Background: 

• In March, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that a poll would be held in Hungary to gauge the level of public support for Ukraine's EU membership. On 19 April, Hungarians began receiving ballot papers for the national consultation that expressly encouraged them to vote against.
• Orbán publicly voted against EU membership for Ukraine in the consultation.
• Orbán ally Alexandra Szentkirályi recently posted a short video of herself standing in front of a man tied up in the boot of a car while she talked about the growing threat of human organ trading, human trafficking and drug smuggling if Ukraine joins the EU.
• A few days later, the Hungarian prime minister posted a video calling on people to oppose Ukraine's accession to the EU that purports to show Hungarians fighting in the war in Ukraine.

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