Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán leaves a polling station in Budapest, on October 2, 2016 | Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images Voters back Viktor Orbán’s rejection of EU migrant quotas Referendum turnout of 43 percent undermined the vote, but ruling party Fidesz hailed it as a clear victory.

Hungarians overwhelmingly rejected European Union migrant quotas in a referendum Sunday, but turnout was below the 50 percent threshold for the vote to be valid.

Orbán’s Fidesz party claimed victory immediately after polling stations closed. The National Election Office said just over 98 percent of those who cast their ballots voted "No," backing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Only 43.35 percent of eligible voters took part, but Orbán has said he will use the result to renegotiate quotas regardless of the turnout.

“Today is a sweeping victory for all those who reject the EU's mandatory, unlimited quotas,” said Fidesz Deputy Chairman Gergely Gulyas, according to an AP report. “It’s a sweeping victory for all those who believe that the foundations of a strong European Union can only be the strong nation states.”

The EU's plan was to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece among the other member countries. Hungary was slated to receive 1,294 of them, but Orbán has long insisted his country will not be forced to take in migrants.

Few refugees and migrants choose to settle in Hungary, but there has been a relentless government campaign against them in the name of protecting European and Christian values. Critics accused Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party of conducting a "hate campaign" in the lead up to Sunday's vote, running ads that demonize migrants, linking them to terrorism.

The government has poured tens of millions of euros into negative advertising, funded by businesses that support the ruling party, to outmaneuver domestic opponents.

“There are definitely fewer refugees in Hungary than there are government billboards about the referendum,” said Péter Balázs, a former Hungarian foreign minister and European commissioner. “Viktor Orbán is trying to play the political trick of referring to things that happened one year ago, he is trying to increase fear.”

The government has poured tens of millions of euros into negative advertising, funded by businesses that support the ruling party, to outmaneuver domestic opponents.

The referendum aims to shift European migration policy, said Balázs Orbán, director of research at the pro-government Századvég Foundation think tank, and head of the associated Migration Research Institute. He is not related to the prime minister.

“The opinion of the government is not against the migrants and refugees per se, but rather against the reactive, unconsidered, and poor responses of the European Union,” he said, adding: “It is the aim of the Hungarian government to exercise impact on the ongoing debate regarding the future of the European Union."

When casting his ballot on Sunday in an elementary school in the Buda hills, the prime minister said: "The most important issue next week is for me to go to Brussels, hold negotiations and try with the help of this result — if the result is appropriate — for it not to be mandatory to take in the kind of people in Hungary we don't want."

The referendum question was: "Do you want the European Union to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?" seen by critics as misleading and manipulative.

The Hungarian prime minister has been a staunch critic of the migration policy, embraced by the EU and Germany. He rolled out razor wire along Hungary's border with Serbia to keep refugees and migrants out of the country during the height of the influx last year.

“The personal ambition of the PM is to become an indispensable and undisputable leader of the Euroskeptical and populist camp of Europe,” Gábor Fodor, leader of the Hungarian Liberal Party, said in a statement on the eve of the poll.

Within Hungary, migration is the one issue in which Orbán has the support of the majority of the population. The far-right Jobbik party is currently polling second behind Fidesz.

The referendum has also revealed the divisions in the liberal and left-wing opposition, with most backing a boycott, others calling for voters to spoil their ballot papers, and a small minority supporting the "Yes" campaign.

The surprise opposition star of the campaign — the “Two-Tailed Dog Party” – was until recently seen as a joke movement. The party’s posters have satirized the government’s "No" campaign and mocked its rhetoric, eclipsing the mainstream campaign. The party now has its sights set on the 2018 general election.

This article has been updated with official results from the election authority.

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