Right wing Jobbik candidate leads parliamentary by-election in Hungary

Lajos Rig of the far right Jobbik party looks to have won a parliamentary by-election in Veszprem County, about 140 km southwest of Budapest, but a final result is not expected until Thursday.

With 99.13 percent of the vote counted, Rig is ahead of Zoltan Fenyvesi, a candidate from governing Fidesz, by 261 votes. Since absentee ballots from abroad will not arrive for several days, the vote count cannot be finalized until then.

Rig is the deputy mayor of the town of Tapolca, which also has a Jobbik mayor. Jobbik won 20 percent of the vote in April 2014 elections, giving it 23 Members of Parliament on a national list but until now it has not had an MP elected for an individual constituency.

Voters came from 72 towns and villages in Veszprem County. Rig was expected to be quite strong in Tapolca, while the left wing Socialist Ferenc Pad was believed to do well in the industrial town of Ajka.

However, voter turnout percentages were much higher for Tapolca than Ajka, as reflected in the outcome. Turnout was light, amounting to 41.62 percent of eligible voters.

Rig received 35.27 percent of the vote, against Fidesz's Zoltan Fenyvesi's 34.38 percent. Pad came in third with 26.27 percent. Enditem