Budapest, 11 August 2026 (dpa) - Hungary's parliament on Tuesday elected the former head of the Supreme Court András Baka as the country's new president, paving the way for a long-time critic of former prime minister Viktor Orbán.

A total of 140 lawmakers backed Baka in the secret ballot, while six voted against him, according to acting speaker Anikó Haller-Nagy.

Baka, 73, was the only candidate, and fielded by the Tisza party of Prime Minster Péter Magyar, who ended 16 years of Orbán rule with a landslide victory in April's elections.

Tisza, which commands a two-thirds majority, passed a constitutional amendment last month that removed the previous president Tamas Sulyok, a close ally of Orbán, from office.

Tisza's Agnes Forsthoffer, formerly serving as speaker, has been acting as head of state on an interim basis since Sulyok's removal on July 19.

Orbán's right-wing populist Fidesz party boycotted Tuesday's vote in protest against the removal of Sulyok.

Baka, who has had a long career working as a lawyer and judge, is held in high regard both in Hungary and abroad.

From 1991 to 2007, he served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. In 2009, he became president of the Supreme Court in Hungary.

Orbán removed him from the post in 2011 using a controversial constitutional amendment designed to bring large sections of the judiciary under the political control of Orbán and his circle.

MIA file photo