The National Election Committee - at its meeting held on February 13, 2009 - acting within its competence as laid down in Section 90/A (4) a), Section 99/K (5) a) and Section 105/A (4) a) of Act C of 1997 on Electoral Procedure (hereinafter: Ve.), issues the following

resolution

A Ve. 14. §-ának (4) bekezdése szerint „az értesítő és az ajánlószelvény kiküldéséről a helyi választási iroda vezetője gondoskodik”.

According to Section 14 (4) of the Ve., "the head of the local election office is responsible for sending out the notification and the recommendation slip."

According to the provisions of paragraph (6), "a voter who does not receive the notification and the recommendation slip may request them from the local election office."

Section 46 (1) of the Ve. states that "a candidate can be recommended on a recommendation slip. The recommendation slip must be sent to the voters together with the notifications." [until the 58th day before the day of the vote, Ve. 14 § (1)]

According to paragraph (4), "the recommendation cannot be withdrawn."

Section 47 of the Ve. states that "a candidate can be recommended on the recommendation slip by handing over the filled-out recommendation slip to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization," and that during the recommendation, "the recommending voter writes their family and given name, address, personal identifier, the family and given name of the person being recommended, the name of the nominating organization, or the fact of the independent nomination on the recommendation slip. The recommendation slip is signed by the recommending voter themselves."

Section 48 (3) of the Ve. states that "it is forbidden to give or promise an advantage to the recommender or to another person on their behalf, as well as to ask for an advantage for the recommendation, or to accept an advantage or the promise of one."

According to Section 50 (1) of the Ve.: "A recommendation is invalid if it was:

a) not submitted on the official recommendation slip,

b) not submitted on a recommendation slip filled out according to Section 47 (2),

c) collected in violation of the recommendation rules.

(2) If a person has recommended the same candidate more than once, all of their recommendations are invalid.

(3) If a person has recommended more than one candidate, all of their recommendations are invalid."

According to Section 52 (1) of the Ve., "the candidate (...) must be registered with the competent election committee by handing over the recommendation slips," including the lists according to Section 99/L (1) and Section 107 (1) of the Ve.

Section 54 of the Ve. states that "the recommendations must be checked by the competent election committee. The checking of recommendations means the checking of the numbers, the provisions of Section 46 (2) and Section 50 (1) a)-b) and (2)-(3), and the identification of the voters who handed over the recommendation slips."

According to Section 59 (1) of the Ve., "it is forbidden to make copies of the recommendation slips."

According to paragraph (2), "the data of the recommender relating to the nomination are not public. In the event of a complaint regarding the nomination, the data on the recommendation slip and the technical register may be checked by the competent election committee, the election office, and the court."

The head of the local election office is responsible for getting the recommendation slip to the voter. This task includes ensuring that the recommendation slips are sent together with the notifications, and providing additional recommendation slips to those voters who did not receive them.

Only the recommendation slip provided by the local election office in the above procedural order is considered an official recommendation slip. It is forbidden to make a copy of the recommendation slip even in an unfilled state, and a recommendation on a copied recommendation slip is invalid, regardless of the method of copying.

An essential condition for the validity and authenticity of the recommendation is the handwritten signature. Other data may be entered on the recommendation slip in the presence of the recommending voter in other ways.

A voter who is unable to sign their name themselves (e.g., physically handicapped, blind, or visually impaired, illiterate) may sign the recommendation slip in the presence of the head or a member of the election office, as well as a court or a notary. The voter's signature is certified by the head or a member of the election office acting as an official person, as well as the court or the notary.

However, it constitutes a violation of the recommendation rules if the voter hands over a recommendation slip containing only their personal data and/or signature, or a completely blank recommendation slip, to the candidate or the representative of the candidate or nominating organization, and the missing data is filled out by someone else in the absence of the voter.

Otherwise, the voter's will expressed during the filling out of the recommendation slip must be respected to the greatest extent possible. Therefore, recommendations on which the candidate's name is not in the form recorded in the registry but is otherwise clearly identifiable (e.g., maiden name, assumed name, etc.), or on which the name of the nominating organization is in a form different from the official designation but can otherwise be established beyond any doubt (e.g., short name, acronym, etc.) must also be accepted as valid.

The recommendation process is concluded on the part of the recommending voter by handing over the filled-out recommendation slip to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization. Since the recommendation cannot be withdrawn, if the registered candidate falls out for any reason, or the as yet unregistered candidate does not submit the recommendation slips, the voter can no longer give another valid recommendation to another candidate. The recommendation slips handed over to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization cannot be subsequently rewritten in the name of another candidate.

The filled-out recommendation slips are handed over by the candidate or nominating organization to the election committee. Recommendation slips can still be collected after the handover, but only within the deadline available for nomination and list submission. If the election committee has refused to register the candidate or list due to an insufficient number of recommendations, all valid recommendation slips collected both before and after the handover - within the above deadline - must be counted in the number of valid recommendations.

The candidate or nominating organization may not make copies of the recommendation slips and may not use the data on them to create a voter database or for any other purpose.

During the checking of the recommendations, the election committee acts as a body. A member of the committee may only perform an independent checking task or inspect the technical register based on a decision of the committee.

Superseded resolutions:

2/1998. (III. 14.) OVB resolution on filling out recommendation slips

7/2002. (II. 7.) OVB resolution on filling out recommendation slips

7/2006. (III. 9.) OVB resolution on the non-repeatability of recommendations

Dr. Gábor Halmai
Vice President of the National Election Committee
elnökhelyettese