A lesson to learn from America

An independent-minded conservative columnist envies America, where the election of a President is a great day – and not just for the winner. He cautions against the planned further electoral reforms in Hungary, due to his concern that they would only produce anger and resentment.

“This is how the losing candidate for the presidency of a great nation ought to behave,” – Heti Válasz’s András Stumpf exclaims in admiration, describing how Mitt Romney conceded defeat and wished President Obama well.

He contrasts the elegant gestures of both sides in America to the bitterness of the losers and the haughty triumphalism of the winners after each election in Hungary and says: “I have come again to envy America.”

Otherwise he feels nearer to Romney’s conservatism and suspects that the Obama administration will continue to back Gordon Bajnai’s strivings for the premiership and criticise the state of affairs in Hungary. He however is convinced that “they should leave criticism and the struggle for reasonable decisions to us.”

Stumpf has still not given up hope that the planned voters’ registration can be prevented. He argues that “people on trams and buses” are abhorred by the idea that they will have to make an extra effort to exercise their voting rights, which might turn many against the ruling parties. But his main point is that unless the government stops tinkering with the electoral system, the next elections will be the scene of “a silent civil war.” “Let our election be a great day too. Like it was in America.”

Tags: elections, registration, US