Andras Baka elected as Hungary's new president

BUDAPEST -- Hungary's parliament on Tuesday elected former Supreme Court chief Andras Baka as the country's new president.

Baka, 73, the sole candidate in the election, received 140 votes in a secret ballot. He was nominated by the ruling Tisza party, which holds the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to elect the president without opposition support.

Baka served as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights from 1991 to 2008 before Hungary's parliament elected him president of the Supreme Court in 2009.

His six-year mandate as Supreme Court president was cut short at the end of 2011 following judicial reforms introduced under the government of then Prime Minister Viktor Orban.