Referenda in Hungary 

The Republic of Hungary's Constitution allows citizens to primarily participate indirectly in the administration of the affairs of the country, through their elected representatives. However, the direct participation of people in the decision or influencing of highly important matters of public interest is also part of a democracy. That purpose is served by the national referendum.

A national referendum may only be ordered by Parliament. 
A national referendum may be ordered in two situations: 

a) Parliament shall ordain the referendum at the initiative of a minimum of 200,000 voters, whether or not Parliament itself approves of the idea of issuing the writ of referendum. Such a referendum shall be binding, i.e. Parliament is legally obliged to implement its result,
b) Under the circumstances provided for by the law, Parliament shall but consider the issuance of the writ of referendum, and will consider whether or not to issue the writ. This is called an optional referendum. Optional referenda may either be indicative or binding.

An optional national referendum may be held at the initiative of: 

a) the voters (if the initiative is supported by more than 100,000 but fewer than 200,000 voters),
b) the President of the Republic,
c) the Government,
d) at least one-third of the elected MPs.

Voters' referendum initiative:

1. The authentication of the signature-collection form
Signatures in support of the issuance of a writ of national referendum can be collected on signature-collection forms. Prior to the start of the signature collection, the specimen of the signature-collection forms must be submitted for authentication by the National Election Committee. The National Election Committee adopts its decision of the authentication of the question after it has examined the compliance with the requirements laid down in the Constitution and the Act on national referendum. No signatures may be collected unless on the forms identical with the authenticated specimen. It is of essential importance that the question to be put to the referendum should be worded precisely and without ambiguity. The forms must contain the proposed referendum question and, in a legible form, the name, address and personal identification number of each signatory as well as the signature of the citizen who collected the signatures.

2. Signature collection
In the event of a citizens' national referendum initiative, signatures may be collected for the period of 4 months from the authentication of the signature-collection form. 

3. Scrutiny of the signatures
The signature-collection forms signed by voters must be submitted to the National Election Committee.
Signatures are verified by the National Election Office. The scrutiny of signatures includes the establishment, through statistical and mathematical methods, of the number of valid signatures, by checking the data of the voters having signed the referendum initiative against the personal data and home address records and the registry of disenfranchised citizens of legal age. In the event the statistical and mathematical method fails to lend presumptive proof to the availability of the required number of valid signatures, the scrutiny of signatures shall be continued by the individual examination of each signature as long as either the validity or the invalidity of the initiative is established beyond reasonable doubt.
The scrutiny of signatures process shall be completed within 45 days of the submission of the initiative.
The Chair of the National Election Committee shall inform the Speaker of Parliament without delay of the result of the scrutiny of signatures.

4. Ordering the national referendum
At the next session of Parliament, the Speaker of Parliament informs Parliament of the initiative. Parliament shall adopt a decision on the initiative within 15 days of such a notice.
Such a decision may be contested at the Constitutional Court, which shall adopt an anticipatory decision in the issue.

5. Issuing the writ of referendum
The date of the referendum shall be published by the President of the Republic within 15 days from the expiration, without any result of the period for recourse against the Parliament decision ordaining the referendum or from the declaration of the recourse award if an application for recourse has been lodged.

The day specified in the writ of referendum shall fall within the 90-day period from the publication of the Parliament's decision ordaining the referendum or from the declaration of the recourse award if an application for recourse has been lodged, provided that there shall be a minimum of 43-day interval between the day such date is specified and the Polling Day.

The referendum shall not be held:
- on a national holiday, bank holiday or any day immediately preceding or following a national holiday or a bank holiday,
- on the day of the election of MPs, members of the municipal government and mayors or during the 41-day period immediately preceding and following such a day.
In the event that due to Parliamentary or general municipal elections, the referendum cannot be held within 90 days from the publication of the Parliament's decision ordaining the referendum, it shall be held within 131 days from the day of the elections.

6. The result of the national referendum
A binding national referendum is deemed conclusive if over half of the voters having cast a valid vote but more than one-quarter of all voters have given the same answer to the question put to the referendum.
In the event the ballot-paper contains more than one referendum question, the referendum result must be established separately for each question.

National referenda in Hungary to date

1. The ‘four-aye' referendum, November 26th 1989:

2. National referendum of July 29^th 1990 on the direct election of the President of the Republic.

3. National referendum of November 16^th 1997 on the issue of joining NATO.

4. National referendum of April 12^th 2003 on the issue of joining the European Union.

Each of the four national referenda listed above were binding. Remarkably, however, in the issue of accession into the European Union, the Constitution itself provided for the ordering of a national referendum.