UDMR President Kelemen Hunor considers these attacks as “senseless.”
The president of the Hungarian People’s Party of Transylvania (PPMT), Toro T. Tibor said Sunday, during a press conference in Targu Mures that UDMR misleads the electorate and the ethnic Hungarians living in Romania do not risk being represented in Parliament because of the alternate electoral threshold. On the same occasion, he announced the first candidates of the party in the general elections, with him being part of the lot. “I noticed a total lack of information about the alternative electoral threshold, within the Hungarian community and in general – a lack of information but also a misleading action conducted by the leaders of UDMR. (…) This electoral threshold actually means that the political party which obtains simple majority in six constituencies for the Chamber of Deputies and three for the Senate, with its candidate being first, meets the conditions for being above the electoral threshold. Hence the conditions can be met in two ways: by reaching 5 pc at national scale, or if its candidate comes first in six constituencies for the Chamber of Deputies and three for the Senate. From then on, if it was above the threshold, it becomes a parliamentary party and will receive a number of mandates proportional with its electoral score at country scale. (…) We, PPMT, can enter the Parliament, we know how to count, we know the score of the June elections. So it is clear because we cannot reach 5 pc, but I believe we have a chance of winning in six constituencies for the Chamber of Deputies and three for the Senate, thus acceding to the Parliament. In Transylvania there are 15 constituencies for the Chamber of Deputies and 7 for the Senate, where Hungarian population forms the majority, so there is no scenario in which Hungarian parties fail acceding to the Parliament,” Toro explained. He accused UDMR of trying to scare ethnic Hungarians into voting for UDMR, else they will not be represented in Parliament. According to the same politician, it is possible that both UDMR and PPMT enter the Parliament – the former by reaching the 5 pc threshold and the latter due to the alternate electoral threshold.In a separate move, the president of the National Council of Transylvanian Hungarians (CNMT), MEP Laszlo Tokes on Sunday accused UDMR representatives of treating the ethnic Hungarians of Transylvania like “their feudal subjects.” Tokes added that UDMR politicians consider they are entitled to each vote, like in the times of the Communist Party, and that they fight against the other ethnic Hungarian parties. In retort, UDMR President Kelemen Hunor labelled Tokes’s accusations as “senseless.”
