Hungary's veteran nationalist leader Viktor Orban conceded defeat on Sunday after a landslide election victory by the upstart opposition Tisza party, in a setback for his allies in Russia and US President Donald Trump's White House.

Results ⁠based on 81.5 percent of votes counted showed the centre-right, pro-EU Tisza party of Peter Magyar winning 137 seats for a crucial two-thirds majority in the 199-member parliament, defeating Orban's Fidesz party.

"The election results are not final yet, but the situation is understandable and clear," Orban, 62, said at the Fidesz campaign offices. Some of his supporters who had gathered outside cried while watching him speak on TV screens.

"The election result is painful for us, but clear."

Election officials estimated turnout at a record of 79 percent or more, in an election that many Hungarians saw as a watershed moment for their country.

Tisza's Magyar, 45, had cast the vote as a choice between "East and West", warning voters that ⁠Orban and his confrontational stance towards Brussels would take the country further away from the European mainstream.

Orban ⁠countered that Tisza would drag Hungary into ⁠an unwanted war with Russia, a charge Magyar denied.

"It's incredibly exciting," said 24-year-old Dorina Nyul, who attended the Tisza election night event.

"It feels like this is our first and last chance in a really long time to ⁠actually change the system. And it's, I can't even describe ‌the feeling."

The end of Orban's 16-year rule will have significant implications not only for Hungary, but for the European Union, Ukraine and beyond. (Reuters)



Edited by Azam Khan