Hungarians vote on giving pro-Putin PM Orban a 4th term

Polls have closed in Hungary’s national election in which pro-Putin nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban sought a fourth consecutive term

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Polls have closed in Hungary’s national election on Sunday in which pro-Putin nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban was seeking a fourth consecutive term.

The contest is expected to be the closest since Orban took power in 2010, thanks to Hungary’s six main opposition parties putting aside their ideological differences to form a united front against his right-wing Fidesz party. Voters were electing lawmakers to the 199-seat parliament.

There were no exit polls but the first results are expected later in the evening. Opinion polls in the last days of the race gave Orban’s Fidesz a slight advantage over the Western-looking coalition of opposition parties.

Opposition parties and international observers have pointed out structural impediments to defeating Orban, highlighting pervasive pro-government bias in the public media, the domination of commercial news outlets by Orban allies and a heavily gerrymandered electoral map.