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RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 76, 21 April 1998

HUNGARIAN PARTIES END REGIONAL LISTS REGISTRATION. Fifteen
political parties have registered regional lists in all 20
electoral district, Hungarian media reported. The deadline
for registering was 20 April. 176 parliamentary deputies are
elected in single-seat constituencies and 152 on regional
lists, where representation is based on a proportional
system. Regional list votes that are insufficient for a
mandate are taken into account for the national lists, on
which an additional 58 deputies are elected. The Socialist
Party and the Free Democrats (which make up the outgoing
coalition) fielded lists in all the districts, as did the
opposition Young Democrats, the Smallholders' Party, the
Christian Democrats, and the far right Justice and Life
Party. In order to run regional lists, parties must compete
in one quarter of the constituencies, and in order to gain
eligibility for the national lists, they have to run at
least seven regional lists. MS

HORN COURTS PENSIONERS AHEAD OF ELECTIONS. The cabinet is
working on an amendment to the existing legislation that
would make possible paying pension increases retroactively,
Prime Minister Gyula Horn announced on 20 April in
Ferencvaros. He said the increase is expected to be 2
percent but did not mention how far back it will apply,
Hungarian media reported. In another development, government
spokesman Elemer Kiss on 20 April denied opposition
accusations that the Socialists are unlawfully using the
premises of the Prime Minister's office as the headquarters
of their election campaign. The previous day, the press
reported that Horn told Socialist Party members they can
obtain help from his staff during the campaign. Kiss said a
10-member staff group has been set up, but it deals only
with monitoring the press and is not involved in the
election campaign. MS

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