If you belong to a minority determined in the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (Bulgarian, Gypsy, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Rusin, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Ukrainian), in October 2010 you may take part in the election of settlement minority self-governments held on the day identical with the day of local self-government elections.

For exercising your minority right to vote we have summed up the most important information you need to know, which is as follows.

 

 

Voters who

- belong to one of the 13 minorities listed above, and undertake their belonging to the minority by their statement,

- Hungarian citizens who have turned legal age until 1 October 2010,

- have right to vote in the election of self-government representatives and mayors,

- are included in the register of minority voters

may cast their vote in the settlement minority self-government elections.

Voters shall meet the above-mentioned terms also when they intend to run as a candidate.

So, you can cast your vote and can become a candidate in minority elections only in the event that – at your request – the settlement clerk enters you in the register of minority voters!

 

 

You can apply for being entered in the register of minority voters until 16.00 hours on 15 July 2010 to the clerk of the settlement of your domicile on the form set out here, which in a printed and signed form after having been filled in can be cast in the collecting box located in the building of the mayor’s office or can be forwarded in a letter to the clerk. The letter must be received by the mayor’s office until 15 July!

You can apply for being entered in the electoral roll of one minority only, otherwise all of your applications will become invalid.

If you fill in the application form completely and forward it to the clerk by deadline, and you have Hungarian citizenship and right to vote in the election of self-government representatives and mayors, the clerk will enter you in the register of voters of the given minority.

You can exercise your right to vote only at the settlement where you have a registered address. So, if you move to another settlement after you have been enrolled as a minority voter, your right to vote will terminate! (If you change address before 15 July, then, as a matter of fact, at the settlement of your new address you can still apply for enrolment.)

 

 

If the settlement clerk refuses to enter you in the electoral roll of minority voters, the clerk will immediately inform you about this fact. Against the decision refusing to enter you in the register of minority voters you can submit an objection in 3 days from receipt of the resolution, to the clerk who has adopted the resolution. If the clerk sustains the objection, he will modify the roll of minority voters. If the clerk does not sustain the objection, he will automatically send it, on the day following its receipt, to the local court, in Budapest to the Central District Court of Pest.

 

 

The local election committee will call the minority self-government election if the number of minority voters included in the electoral roll of the given minority at the settlement reaches 30 persons on the day the election is called.

 

 

 

Candidates may be put forward by non-governmental organisations – public benefit or non-public benefit non-governmental organisations as set out in the Act on Freedom of Association – whose objective set forth in their statutes has been, for at least 3 years prior to the year of the election, representation of the given minority. The law does not provide the opportunity for independent candidates to run in the election.

Only voters included in the register of minority voters of their domicile may become candidates. Voters may be nominated at any settlement, irrespective of domicile. Being registered as a candidate at a settlement other than the domicile will not be prevented if minority self-government elections are not called at the candidate’s domicile.

The candidate must state if

- he or she undertakes representation of the given minority,

- he or she knows the common language of the given minority community,

- he or she knows the culture and traditions of the given minority community,

- he or she has earlier been a member or official of the minority self-government of any other minority.

The candidate’s statement is public, anybody may obtain knowledge thereof.

 

 

Voting will be implemented in independent electoral district(s) set up for this purpose in each settlement concerned. The clerk will send a notice on the polling stations address and the date of voting after the election has been called.

On the ballot paper, each candidate of the minority concerned will be indicated, in the order drawn. The body of representatives of the settlement minority self-government consists of 4 members, therefore, votes may be cast on maximum 4 candidates. The candidates who have received the most votes will become representatives.

 

 

Throughout the elections personal and special data are handled in accordance with data protection rules. The law determines the aim of data handling and the scope of entities handling data as well. In accordance with that, the electoral roll of minority voters – except for numerical data – is not public, it may be inspected solely by the election office, the election committee and the court in order to fulfil their tasks.

The minority electoral roll will be annihilated immediately after the results of the election become final.

 

 

If the given minority has a proper number of settlement minority self-governments, it may set up a regional and national minority self-government in January 2011. The regional and national self-government will be elected by the representatives of settlement minority self-governments (electors).