A team of international election observers has said Hungary's election, in which nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban won a thumping majority, was "marred" by an unbalanced campaign.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent a full observer mission to Sunday's election, only the second time it has done so for an EU member state, amid concerns over the fairness of the vote.
The mission included 312 observers from 45 countries.
They found that while the vote was "well administered and professionally managed", it was "marred by the absence of a level playing field".
"The extensive government advertising campaigns and biased news coverage in the public and many private media provided a pervasive campaign platform for the ruling party," the preliminary report said.
The opposition was all but absent from state media, which has been turned into mouthpiece of the ruling Fidesz during the party's last consecutive 12 years in office.
The "absence of debate between the main contestants" further limited "voters' ability to make an informed choice" while the use of government messaging in favour of Fidesz "blurred the line between state and party", the observers said.
The report also pointed to a "lack of transparency and insufficient oversight of campaign finances".
While polling day passed off peacefully and "voting procedures were largely respected", the mission said "secrecy was often compromised, many polling stations were overcrowded and group voting was frequently observed".
In a radio interview last week, Mr Orban called organisations such as the OSCE "institutions of war" aimed at attacking parties like Fidesz.
"I reject that particular charge in its entirety," British Conservative MP Mark Pritchard, who was part of the observer mission, told a press conference.
The mission, he pointed out, was invited by the Hungarian government.
"You don't invite people in to declare war on you," he added.
