The National Election Committee - at its meeting held on February 22, 2010 - 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

According to Section 5 (2) of Act XXXIV of 1989 on the election of parliamentary representatives, "in an individual constituency, the nomination requires the signature-authenticated recommendation of at least seven hundred and fifty voters."

Section 9 of Act L of 2010 on the election of local government representatives and mayors states that

"(1) An individual list or individual constituency representative candidate is a person who has been nominated by at least 1% of the voters of the given constituency.

(2) A nominating organization that has collected the recommendation of 1% of the voters of the constituency can put up a list in the county constituency.

(3) A candidate for mayor is a person who has been nominated by at least

a) 3% of the voters of a settlement with 10,000 or fewer inhabitants,

b) 2% of the voters of a settlement with more than 10,000 but not more than 100,000 inhabitants, but at least 300 voters,

c) 1% of the voters of a settlement with more than 100,000 inhabitants, but at least 2000 voters.

(4) A candidate for mayor of the capital is a person who has been nominated by 2% of the voters of the capital."

According to Section 5 (2) of Act CXIII of 2003 on the election of members of the European Parliament, "a list requires the signature-authenticated recommendation of at least 20,000 voters."

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

According to Ve. Section 14 (6), "a voter who does not receive the notification and the recommendation slip may request them from the local election office."

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

According to Ve. Section 46 (4), "the recommendation cannot be withdrawn."

Ve. Section 47 states that "a candidate can be nominated on the recommendation slip by handing over the completed recommendation slip to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization," and that during the recommendation, "the recommending voter shall enter their family and given name, address, personal identification number, the family and given name of the person being recommended, the name of the nominating organization, or the fact of an independent nomination. The recommending voter shall sign the recommendation slip in their own hand."

According to Ve. Section 48 (2) a), recommendation slips may not be collected "at a workplace during working hours or while fulfilling a work obligation arising from an employment relationship or another legal relationship aimed at performing work."

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

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

a) not submitted on the official recommendation slip,

b) not submitted on a recommendation slip completed in accordance with Section 47 (2),

c) collected in violation of the recommendation rules.

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

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

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

Ve. Section 54 states that "the competent election committee must verify the recommendations. The verification of the recommendations means the verification of the number, the provisions of Section 46 (2), Section 50 (1) a)-b), and paragraphs (2)-(3), as well as the identification of the voters who handed over the recommendation slips."

According to Ve. Section 38 (1) f), the election office "shall perform the technical tasks related to the verification of candidate recommendations."

According to Ve. Section 55 (2), "the competent election committee shall register every nominating organization, candidate, or list that meets the legal requirements - within 2 days of its registration."

According to Ve. Section 56 (2), "the election committee shall refuse to register the candidate if the nomination does not meet the legal requirements or the candidate has not made the declarations required by law."

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

Based on Ve. Section 59 (2), "the data on the nominating person for the nomination are not public. In the event of an objection related to the nomination, the data on the recommendation slip and the technical records may be verified by the competent election committee, the election office, and the court."

1. The head of the local election office is responsible for delivering 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 voters who have not received them.

2. Only the recommendation slip provided by the local election office in the above procedure qualifies as an official recommendation slip. It is forbidden to make a copy of the recommendation slip even in an uncompleted state, and a recommendation on a copied recommendation slip is invalid, regardless of the method of copying.

3. The purpose of the prohibition on collecting recommendation slips at a workplace during working hours, as laid down in Ve. Section 48 (2) a), is to exclude electoral acts from workplaces. Consequently, the prohibition not only excludes the collection of recommendation slips among those working at a workplace but also prohibits anyone from collecting recommendation slips at workplaces during working hours.

In this regard, the National Election Committee considered the definition of a workplace in Section 87 (5) of Act XCIII of 1993 on Occupational Safety and Health to be decisive, according to which a workplace is "any open or enclosed space (including underground facilities, vehicles) where employees are present for the purpose of work or in connection with it. The place of work of a self-employed person who does not employ others and performs their work exclusively in person (even if they have founded a sole proprietorship) must be considered a workplace [...]."

The prohibition obviously does not apply to workplaces maintained and operated by nominating organizations.

However, it is a violation of the prohibition if the nominating organization designates, advertises, or promotes another workplace - other than those it maintains itself - for the purpose of collecting or submitting recommendation slips.

4. An essential condition for the validity and authenticity of a recommendation is the signature by hand. The other data can be entered on the recommendation slip in another way in the presence of the recommending voter.

A voter who is unable to sign their name by hand (e.g., physically disabled, blind, or visually impaired, illiterate) may sign the recommendation slip with their mark in front of the head or a member of the election office, as well as a court or a notary public. The voter's mark shall be certified by the head or a member of the election office acting as an official person, as well as the court or the notary public.

However, it is 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 in by another person in the absence of the voter.

In other respects, the will of the voter expressed during the completion of the recommendation slip must be respected to the fullest 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 appears in a form other than the official name but can be ascertained beyond any doubt (e.g., short name, acronym, etc.) must also be accepted as valid.

5. The recommendation process on the part of the recommending voter is concluded by handing over the completed recommendation slip to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization. Since the recommendation cannot be withdrawn, if the registered candidate is eliminated for any reason, or the candidate who has not yet been registered 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 re-written for another candidate's name afterward.

6. According to the National Election Committee, recommendation slips can still be collected after the registration of the candidate/list, regardless of whether the candidate/list has already been registered or their application for registration has been rejected. The recommendations can be submitted to the competent election committee within the deadline for candidate and list nomination.

If the election committee refused to register the candidate/list due to a number of recommendations that was less than required, in the case of a repeated registration of the same candidate/list, all valid recommendation slips collected before and after the submission - within the above deadline - must be included in the number of valid recommendations.

If the election committee has registered the candidate/list, the election office shall receive the additionally submitted recommendation slips for safekeeping but shall not verify them, given that their verification is no longer necessary for the registration of the candidate/list.

If, after the registration of the candidate/list has become final, recommendation slips are submitted for the registration of another candidate/list that are considered invalid due to the reason set out in Ve. Section 50 (3), this does not result in the deletion of the already finally registered candidate/list from the register. However, if the decision on registration has not yet become final, it is possible to change the decision during the legal remedy procedure.

7. The candidate and the 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.

8. When verifying recommendations, the election committee acts as a body. A member of the committee may perform verification tasks independently or inspect the technical records only on the basis of a decision by the committee.

With the issuance of this resolution, Resolution 1/2009. OVB on recommendation slips and the recommendation process is repealed.

Dr. Péter Szigeti
President of the National Election Committee
elnöke

* The text was established by Resolution 5/2010. OVB