Hungary's opposition Socialists looked set for victory over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's conservative party in the second-round of general elections on today, according to poll forecasts released as voting ended.
Three polling institutes predicted a majority of seats in the 386-member parliament for the Socialists and their liberal ally the Alliance of Free Democrats, who governed the ex-communist country from 1994-98.
The Socialists' candidate for prime minister Mr Peter Medgyessy, a finance minister in the 1990s and member of the Communist Party's central committee before 1989, is hoping to win power to lead the country into the European Union in 2004.
The poll forecasts were based on surveys of voters in recent days, and were not exit polls based on questioning as voters left polling stations.
Key party leaders commented cautiously on the forecasts by the pollsters, who in the April 7th first round wrongly predicted the outcome of voting which eventually gave the Socialists a surprise narrow lead.
But Socialist Party head Mr Laszlo Kovacs said the results "show that the forces against the government are probably bigger than the forces who want the government to stay in place."
An official from the Free Democrats, Mr Balint Magyar, commented: "I have lots of hope about the result, but I want to see the actual votes before commenting definitively."
The Sonda Ipsos institute gave the Socialists 184 seats, with 23 for the liberal Free Democrats and 179 for Mr Orban's Fidesz party. A Median poll gave the Socialists 184, with 20 for the Free Democrats and 182 for Fidesz.
The Tarki pollster, making a forecast on Hungary's extremely complex voting system, gave the Socialists either 194 or 174, the Free Democrats 20 or 22, and Fidesz either 170 or 142.
Turnout in the second round of the elections, Hungary's fourth since the collapse of communism in 1989, was set to be above the record 71 percent recorded in the first round, according to national election commission figures.
In the first round, 185 seats in the 386-member parliament were decided: 98 to the opposition and 87 to Mr Orban's Fidesz.
AFP