Leftists Boycotted Hungarian LGBT Child Protection Referendum, Invalidating Vote

Leftists opposed to the Hungarian government’s stance on LGBT issues were able to successfully invalidate a referendum by spoiling ballots as they did not have near enough support to win the vote itself.

Under the terms of the national constitution, Hungarian referenda require at least 50 per cent of the eligible voter base to cast a valid ballot in order to be legally binding, but despite millions voting on questions regarding LGBT issues and children, the total number of ballots was shy of the 50 per cent requirement at 45.25 per cent.

The requirement was not met as over 20 per cent of the votes were deemed to be invalid as many pro-LGBT activists and groups encouraged Hungarians to spoil their ballots in an effort to invalidate the referendum, while others did not vote at all.

According to the results of the referendum, over 3.5 million Hungarians cast valid ballots in the referendum, which featured four different questions on LGBT issues.

The questions included asking parents if their children should be taught about sexual orientations in schools, support for gender reassignment treatments for children, the introduction of sexual media content to minor children and showing media to children regarding changing gender.

On all of the questions, those opposed to LGBT issues being taught to children revived between 92 and  95 per cent of the valid votes. Even if the spoiled ballots were added to those who supported LGBT issues being taught to children, the pro-LGBT voters would have lost the referendum by well over a million votes on each question.

While LGBT activists and leftists were able to negate the referendum, the national election held on the same day saw a landslide victory for Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his party Fidesz who not only secured another majority in the Hungarian parliament but maintained their two-thirds majority, which allows the party to make constitutional changes.

“Christian democratic politics, conservative civic politics, and patriotic politics [are] not the past, [but] the future,” Prime Minister Orban said in his victory speech Sunday evening.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.