Polls opened across Hungary early Sunday as voters in the Central European country faced a stark choice: take a chance on a diverse, westward-looking coalition of opposition parties, or grant nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban a fourth consecutive term.
For Adriana, the choice is clear: she's voting for the ruling Fidesz party. "Its always hard to experience change and I feel like the current status is better than something unknown," she tells RFI. "I'd just stay in a safe place."
She rejects the opposition's allegations of widespread corruption within the Fidesz-run government headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"People always talk about corruption, it doesn't matter which party, they will always say this depending on who they support," she insists.
A local clinic at 33, Boulevard Bajcsy-Zelinszky in central Budapest, has been turned in a polling station. A steady trickle of voters head in and out – they register, disappear into one of the three voting booths, then leave to make place for the next person.
At 10:30 this morning, Dritan Taulla, the Albanian head of the US-backed, Montenegro-based European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (Enemo) pops into the polling station with an assistant from Bulgaria and a Hungarian translator.
He's not yet ready to give an assessment, but says that a preliminary report of his organisation expressed concern over the lack of press freedom in Hungary.
"We are looking at how the elections comply with international standards," he tells RFI.
He worries about a new law on taking pictures inside the voting booth.
"The law does not forbid taking pictures of the ballot paper," he says. "Our observers have been trying to keep track of people taking [such] pictures. That might be a sign of problems in that polling station."
Monika Orosz, a 35-year-old woman who works in finance, is backing the opposition alliance led by Peter Marki-Zay. As an observer for a local organisation monitoring the elections, she's concerned about vote rigging and volunteers.
"Many Hungarian people are really under-educated and they don't have the possibility to see a wider view, especially people from the countryside," she says.
"They see the view that the government is throwing at them, so I don't think that we are going to be able to change the government."
But Alexandra, 77, thinks Orban and his party should stay at the helm since "they have good plans for the future".
She has a low opinion of the opposition. "They'll break apart, as far as I can see. Maybe their choice of leadership was not the best."
Asked about what Orban's priority should be if he wins, she says it has to be the war in Ukraine.
"At the moment we are talking about peace or war, we hope that we will not be involved," she says.
Orban, a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin, sensed political capital and adjusted his statements right after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, toning down his pro-Putin rhetoric, presenting himself as a "candidate for peace," while insisting that a vote for the opposition would "drag Hungary into war."
As a result, Alexandra is categorical that Orban has to stay.
As for the accusations of corruption within Fidesz ranks, Alexandra thinks that some of the allegations "are definitely true, but it's human".
Polls close at 7:00 pm, and preliminary results are expected to come in later this evening.
