Română
Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority in Romania: at the latest census (2011) they represented 6.1% of the total population of the country of 20.1 million. A new census is going on in 2022, but the proportion is likely to stay roughly the same since the demographic decline occurred uniformly in most ethnic communities; the total population of the country today is estimated at 19.1 million.
Both the size of the Hungarian community and its territorial distribution have political significance. First, since they make up around 6% of the total population, it means they have a chance to be represented in Parliament proportionally, by a normal party that passes the electoral threshold of 5% and not by making an appeal to the system of ethnic quotas like the other minorities.
Romania allows multiple citizenships and as a result many ethnic Hungarians also claimed and received the Hungarian one, especially after 2010 when the Law on Citizenship was adopted in Budapest, which means they are entitled to vote in the April 3rd elections. Based on historical trends, it is expected that around 200,000 Hungarian voters who are residents of Romania would register for this round parliamentary elections, out of a total of almost 500,000 in all the communities outside Hungary.
Hungarians from Romania can vote in person in three locations: the embassy in Bucharest and the consulates in Cluj and Târgu Mureş; otherwise most of the votes are send by post. The participation rate of those who registered for voting is in general high: an estimate
dating from 2008 puts it at around 70%. While the citizens with permanent residence in Hungary vote for the first-pass-the-post constituencies and for the proportional list, those who live in the neighboring countries can vote only for the proportional list which sends 93
MPs into the Budapest parliament.
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This report has been prepared with support from IRI’s Beacon Project. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of IRI.
Our report was also published on IRI Beacon Project’s website. You can find it here.