At present there are a total 183 parties in Hungary, including 55 registered since the last parliamentary elections in 2006, data published by the National Judicial Council show.
Over the past year, 26 new parties have been registered by courts. Of them, a single one, the green LMP has burst into the limelight by winning 2.6 percent of votes during the European parliamentary elections in June 2009.
Hungary saw a similar wave of new parties emerging in the early 1990s. Several of them have ceased to exist since then, but 31 are still afloat.
All five parties with seats in the current Parliament were registered between November 1989 and February 1990.
Entering candidates for the general elections is a must for each party as the relevant law of 1989 declares that parties failing to field any candidate in two subsequent general elections are legally declared as non-existent.
