BUDAPEST: Hungary's president has announced that parliamentary elections will be held on April 8.
President Janos Ader said Thursday in a statement that the vote will be held on the anniversary of the 1990 elections, the first after the end of communism.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban will be seeking his third consecutive term and fourth overall. Polls show his Fidesz party holding a huge lead over a fragmented opposition.
Orban has strongly rejected mass migration especially by Muslims and has portrayed the elections as a choice between keeping the border fences Hungary built in 2015 to stop migrants or reopening a path for them into Europe.
Voters will elect 199 lawmakers to four-year terms. The official election campaign will start on February 17.