16/2006. (IV. 28.) OVB resolution on the deadlines regulated by Act C of 1997 on Electoral Procedure

The National Election Committee, acting within its competence as laid down in Section 90/A (4) a) of Act C of 1997 on Electoral Procedure (hereinafter: Ve.), issues the following

resolution

on certain deadlines regulated in the Ve.

According to Section 78 of the Ve.:"78. § (1) If the election committee upholds the objection ... c) it annuls and repeats the electoral procedure or the part thereof affected by the legal remedy."

According to Section 97/A of the Ve.:"(1) The parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall - without opening them - seal the inner envelopes containing the foreign representative ballot papers referred to in Section 73/A (4) in a carrier envelope, on which the number of inner envelopes placed in it must be indicated. The carrier envelope shall be authenticated by the signatures of the members of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee, and its president shall also provide a stamp impression. The parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall record the number of inner envelopes placed in the carrier envelope in a separate record. The president of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall hand over the carrier envelope and a copy of the record to the president of the vote counting committee of the polling station designated by the parliamentary individual constituency election committee at the seat of the parliamentary individual constituency.

(2) The vote counting committee referred to in paragraph (1) shall mix the envelopes containing the foreign representative ballot papers - without opening them - with the envelopes containing the votes cast in the polling station.

(3) In the second round of the vote, the vote counting committee referred to in paragraph (1) shall, after the vote has been closed, seal the ballot box in such a way that no ballot paper can be placed in it or removed from it. The vote counting committee shall hand over the ballot box to the parliamentary individual constituency election committee, which shall ensure its safe custody.

(4) In the second round of the vote, the parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall hand over the ballot box and the envelopes containing the ballot papers referred to in Section 73/A (4) to the vote counting committee referred to in paragraph (1) no later than the 6th day following the vote in Hungary, and the committee shall immediately carry out the tasks laid down in this Section and - with the exception of Section 76 - in Chapter IX."

The deadlines prescribed in the Ve. for actions to be taken from the day of the vote (e.g., removal of election posters, etc.) must be calculated in relation to the day of the vote that has been concluded with a final result. Because of this, the deadlines are pending during the legal remedy procedure aimed at repeating the vote, and this pending situation ends with the conclusion of the legal remedy procedure.

The deadline for carrying out the procedural actions contained in Section 97/A (4) of the Ve. is also determined by the law in relation to the day of the vote. Thus, if a legal remedy application is aimed at repeating the vote, the tasks in Section 97/A (4) of the Ve. can also only be carried out depending on the result of the legal remedy procedure.

According to the above, if a legal remedy procedure is initiated regarding the polling station designated for the counting of foreign representative votes, aiming at repeating the vote, the president of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall not hand over the foreign representative ballot papers to the vote counting committee designated for their counting until the legal remedy procedure has been finally concluded.

If the vote is repeated, after the legal remedy procedure has been finally concluded, the president of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee and the vote counting committee shall proceed in the same way as in the first round with regard to the votes cast abroad.

If, based on the final decision made in the legal remedy procedure, the vote does not have to be repeated, and the deadline in Section 97/A (4) of the Ve. has already expired by the time the decision becomes final, the president of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee shall immediately hand over the foreign representative votes to the vote counting committee designated for their counting, and the committee shall carry out its tasks as laid down in Section 97/A (4) of the Ve. After this, it will be possible to determine the result according to Section 98 of the Ve.


Budapest, 28 April 2006

Dr. Péter Szigeti
President of the National Election Co