In Sunday’s second running of the by-election in a single district of Baja which had returned disputed results the first time ‘round, Fidesz-KDNP candidate Csaba Kovács was again declared the winner with just under two-thirds of the 221 ballots cast. Kovács finished with 138 votes to left-wing candidate Melinda Teket’s 69 and the 14 taken by György Marko of Jobbik. István Ikotity, representing LMP, could not muster a single vote.
Turnout was particularly outstanding, with a big 48% of those eligible voting: nearly double the percentage the district saw in the 2010 parliamentary elections and more than in the original by-election of two weeks ago.
Baja Mayor Róbert Zsigó, whose resignation had been called for by the left-wing coalition after improprieties in the first by-election, stated that “Baja for the second time has clearly sent a message that it does not need a broken left wing, not together, not separately. Fidesz would like to thank the voters … who showed their trust in our future work. The fallen left should take note of this defeat.”
Naturally, spin doctors on the other side immediately worked to find the silver lining in the gray-clouded loss. In a statement, the coalition reckoned that the Baja win was actually “tantamount to a defeat, a party victory [won] in exchange for losing honor in front of an entire country.”
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