(24 Apr 2006)
AP Television
1. Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany voting
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungarian Prime Minister:
"The most important thing is whether we will be able to protect the security of everyday life and whether we will be able to make the Hungarian economy more competitive, and are able to make the whole social life dynamic. This is what we are preparing for."
4. Hungarian Parliament, on banks of Danube
5. Four storey high election poster
MTV - No Access Hungary
6. Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungarian Prime Minister, speaking at podium at the headquarters of the Hungarian Socialist Party
7. Jubilant Hungarian Socialist Party supporters
8. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Istv�n Hiller, Hungarian Socialist Party Chairman:
"Let''s celebrate! I thank you for everything!"
9. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Viktor Orban, Leader of Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union (the main opposition party):
"Those who unite win, while those who, like us, are unable to join forces always lose."
10. SZDSZ party celebration
11. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Gabor Kuncze, leader of SZDSZ (coalition partner):
"You have won. You have won!"
12. Leader of MDF, Hungarian Democratic Forum, Ibolya D�vid
13. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Ibolya D�vid, Leader of Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF): "There has to be great changes in the right-wing in Hungary, we have to think over our aims and methods, whether we like it or not."
14. Pan podium
STORYLINE:
Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany on Sunday proclaimed victory for his governing coalition in Hungary''s parliamentary elections.
With ballots from 98.3 percent of voting districts counted, official projections by the National Election Office showed the Socialists and their coalition partners winning 210 of the 386 seats in the legislature.
The two centre-right opposition groups were seen winning 175 seats, while an independent candidate won one seat.
Gyurcsany, 44, initially came to power in September 2004, after Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy was forced from office.
Gyurcsany was a communist youth leader in the 1980s who later became one of Hungary''s richest businessmen.
A beaming Gyurcsany appeared before jubilant supporters gathered at the Socialist Party headquarters.
Gyurcsany said the government''s electoral victory was not about power, but about responsibility and tasks.
Earlier, after casting his ballot in the capital Budapest, Gyurcsany said his main objectives would be to provide citizens with peace and security in their everyday lives, while improving Hungary''s economic competitiveness.
The next government faces a tough challenge posed by a huge budget deficit - the largest in the European Union compared to the size of the economy - and mounting pressure from the EU for economic reforms paving the way for adopting the euro.
Preliminary figures showed voter turnout was 64.3 percent, compared with 67.8 in the first round, the National Election Office said.
Viktor Orban, leader of Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Union, the main centre-right opposition party, conceded defeat and blamed it on the lack of unity among the conservative parties.
"Those who unite win, while those unable to join forces always lose," Orban told supporters gathered in Buda Castle.
Ibolya D�vid, Leader of MDF, Hungarian Democratic Forum, said of the defeat: "There has to be great changes in the right-wing in Hungary, we have to think over our aims and methods, whether we like it or not."
The parties were fighting for votes in 110 districts where runoffs were held because no candidate won an outright majority in the first round of voting held on April 9.
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