The National Election Committee, acting within its competence as laid down in Section 34 (2) a) of Act C of 1997 on Electoral Procedure (hereinafter Ve.), issues the following

resolution

on the quorum of the assembly of electors who elect the national minority self-governments:

According to Section 68 (4) of Act XX of 1949 on the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, "national and ethnic minorities may establish local and national self-governments."

According to Section 31 (2) of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the rights of national and ethnic minorities (hereinafter: Nek. tv.), "the national self-government shall be elected by minority electors."

Section 33 (2) of the Nek. tv. states that "the National Election Committee shall convene the assembly of electors within 60 days of the deadline specified in Section 32 (2), provided that the number of electors reaches 14. The number of representatives who can be elected [Section 63 (3)] may not exceed the number of electors present."

Based on Section 33 (3) of the same act, "if the electoral assembly convened according to paragraph (2) lacks a quorum, the National Election Committee shall reconvene the assembly of electors once within 60 days of the date of the assembly without a quorum." According to paragraph (4), "an identical national or ethnic minority may establish only one national self-government. Several national and ethnic minorities may form a joint, associated national self-government."

Section 34 of the Nek. tv. states: "the members of the general assembly of the national self-government shall be elected from their own ranks by the electors through a secret ballot, with the appropriate application of the rules for the small-list vote of the law on the election of local government representatives and mayors. All candidates who have the support of 10% of the electors shall be placed on the ballot. The electoral assembly has a quorum if at least half of the elected electors are present."

Section 63 (3) provides that "the number of members of the general assembly of the national self-government convened for the first time shall be determined by the convened assembly of electors, between 13 and 53 people."

According to the justification of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the rights of national and ethnic minorities, Act LXIV of 1990 on the election of local government representatives and mayors, and Act LXV of 1999 on the amendment of Act C of 1997 on electoral procedure, "the law reduces the quorum requirement for electoral assemblies from the current 75% to 50%. This means that the electoral assembly electing the national minority self-government has a quorum only if at least half of all electors appear at the assembly. This ratio, of course, does not affect the condition resulting from Section 33 (2) and Section 63 (3) of the Nek. tv., which states that the election can only be held if the number of electors present exceeds the minimum number of members of the body to be elected."

According to Section 2 (1) and (2) of Decree 46/1998 (X. 21.) BM on the procedural rules for the election of metropolitan and national minority self-governments (hereinafter: R.), "the tasks related to the election of national minority self-governments shall be performed by the National Election Committee (hereinafter: OVB). The organization, administration, IT, financial, and technical preparation and execution of the elections shall be performed by the local election offices (hereinafter: HVI), the regional election offices (hereinafter: TVI), and the National Election Office (hereinafter: OVI)."

Based on R. Section 4:
"(1) The oldest member present shall open the assembly.
(2) The participants of the assembly shall elect a presiding officer and a three-member vote counting committee from among themselves by open vote. The vote counting committee shall elect a president from among its members.
(3) The presiding officer and the members of the vote counting committee cannot be candidates."

R. Section 5 states: "In the case of an open vote, the oldest member or the presiding officer may determine the fact of a clear majority or minority without precisely counting the votes. If there is a tie in an open vote, the proposals that received the most votes must be put to a repeated vote. In the event of a repeated tie, a lottery shall decide."

According to R. Section 6 (3), "the verification of the completeness of the ballot paper is the task of the presiding officer and the vote counting committee."

R. Section 7 states:
"(1) The provisions of Ve. Section 69 shall be applied accordingly to determine the validity of the vote.
(2) A record shall be made of the assembly, which shall be signed by the presiding officer and the members of the vote counting committee."

R. Section 27 (2) provides that "if fewer than seventeen electors are present at the assembly or for another reason a vote counting committee is not established, the tasks of the vote counting committee shall be performed by the members of the OVB who are present."

Based on R. Section 31, "the OVB shall determine the result based on the record, within 8 days of the election."

According to R. Section 32, "a legal remedy in accordance with Ve. Sections 77-80 may be sought against a decision of the OVB."

Based on the above, the OVB finds that the election of the national and ethnic minorities' national self-government at the assembly of electors is an autonomous right of the national and ethnic minority. The National Election Committee and the National Election Office may only exercise the powers recorded in the valid legal regulations, cited above, in connection with the electoral assembly that elects the national and ethnic minority.

The electoral assembly has a quorum if at least half of the elected electors are present. The continuous maintenance of the quorum of the electoral assembly is a legal condition for the conduct of the assembly.

The quorum of the electoral assembly is checked by the oldest member present or the presiding officer of the assembly based on the number of electors present at the assembly. The quorum of the electoral assembly must be checked before the start of the assembly and before the election of the members of the representative body, and the result must be recorded in the record of the assembly. As a result of the vote, the candidate who received the most votes shall become a member of the representative body, with the appropriate application of the rules for the small-list vote of the law on the election of local government representatives and mayors - taking into account the number of members of the representative body - regardless of how many members of the quorum electoral assembly exercised their right to vote when electing the representative body.

According to the OVB's interpretation, the assembly of electors who elect the national and ethnic minorities' self-government is an electoral body, where the participation of the electors is not only a right, but also a duty and responsibility of the electors, with due regard to the maintenance of the quorum prescribed by law.

Budapest, 30 January 2003

Dr. Lajos Ficzere
President of the National Election Committee