Earlier this month, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (“OSCE”), pointedly recommended the deployment of a full-scale election observation mission (“EOM”) — one that includes a core team of analysts as well long and short-term observers — for Hungary’s April 3, 2022, parliamentary elections. The OSCE assessed Hungary’s 2014 parliamentary elections as “free but not fair” and found little subsequent improvement in the country’s 2018 parliamentary elections. And since 2018, Hungary has taken additional steps that could raise further questions about the integrity of its elections.

OSCE member states need to do their part and provide enough observers to ensure that the OSCE can assess whether Hungary’s upcoming elections are legitimate.

David Levine is the Elections Integrity Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan initiative housed at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He previously served in a range of positions administering elections. As the Ada County, Idaho, Elections Director, the Washington, D.C., Election Management Advisor, and Richmond, Va., Deputy Director of Elections, he has helped manage the administration of federal, state county and local elections. Follow him on Twitter @davidalanlevine.

Daniel Hegedus is nonresident fellow for Central Europe at the German Marshall Fund. He previously worked at Freedom House, the German Council on Foreign Relations and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and has taught at the Institute for Eastern-European Studies at the Free University in Berlin, Humboldt University in Berlin and the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. Follow him on Twitter @DanielHegedus82.

The Hill

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