Invalid

16/2014. NVB guidance
on the validity of territorial and national listed nationality ballot papers submitted under Section 323 (4) of Ve. [1]

The National Electoral Committee Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure (1) (hereinafter: Ve.

in guidance

give out:

1. The nationality voter's nationality and national listing, which is not elected in a polling station where no municipality of nationality is elected, will be enclosed in a supplier regardless of whether or not the voter has placed it in an envelope.

1. In the case of the voting count of 327 of the Ve. Ve.

The guideline is aimed at interpreting the following provisions of Ve.:

“193. § (1) Invalid the ballot paper that

a) not equipped with the official stamps,

(b) contains more votes than the law or

c) does not contain a valid vote.

(2) Invalid is the vote which

(a) not given in accordance with Article 186 (2)

(b) a missed candidate, listed.

(3) The validity of the vote shall not be affected, if compliant with other conditions, if there is an invalid vote in accordance with paragraph 2, or if any comment has been made on the ballot paper, such as the order of the candidates, the lists, the candidate's name, listed, listed.

“323. § (4) The territorial and national listing of the nationality whose municipality is not elected in the settlement shall be placed in an envelope on which the nationality is indicated. The envelope is closed by the voter. ”

“323/A. § (1) The Voting Counting Committee or the Local Electoral Committee shall enclose envelopes containing votes in accordance with Article 323 (4).

(2) The Local Electoral Office shall deliver the conveyor envelope referred to in paragraph 1 by 10 am on the day following the vote. ”

“327. § votes under Article 323 (4) of the Territorial Electoral Committee. ”

The provisions of the Ve.

“178. § (1) If there is no obstacle to the vote, the voting counting committee shall hand over the ballot paper to the voter on the basis of the voting list, which will be stamped in the upper left corner of the voter and the envelope for the placement of the ballot. "

“182. § (1) The voter may place the ballot box in an envelope and throw it into the ballot box. ”

“308. § I-XII. And the 307/d. § 307/f. § 307/l. (2) and (3) shall apply with the differences in this section. ”

Justification

The election of MPs and members of the European Parliament shall be recorded by the Ve. (2), 271 (2), § 331], that the voter puts the ballot papers in an envelope and closes the envelope. For both elections, the Ve. It has a separate legal consequence if the envelope is not closed by the voter. Article 286 and 341 of the Ve. Are regulated with the same content for the two elections, when it states that if there is an enclosed envelope in the urn from the foreign mission or between the voters of the voting voters, it is considered to be an unspecified vote and must be packaged separately.

Contrary to the above regulations, the provisions of the Ve., In the event that the municipality of the nationality is not elected in the given municipality, are only stated that the voter will put the territorial and national list ballo in envelope and close the envelope.

The general rule of the vote and the voting rule, § 193, and the special provisions of the nationality self-government elections, contrary to the rules of the election of parliamentarians and members of the European Parliament, do not contain any vote under Article 323 (4) of the Ve. Close it, which would mean the vote or vote.

Ve. 323/A. (1), the Voting Counting Committee and the Local Election Commission shall close the envelopes containing the votes cast under Article 323 (4).

The law does not distinguish between the closed and the enhanced envelopes and does not set the task of the electoral committee to be a separate bundle under this aspect.

Based on all these, Ve. 323/A. (1), the correct interpretation of the provision of the Voting Counting Committee or the Local Electoral Committee shall, without separate bonding due to the envelope, shall be concluded in the conveyance of the local electoral office to the local electoral office on the day of the vote, without any special bonding.

In the absence of a general or special legal provision, either the ballot or vote shall not result in the invalidity of the vote in the conveyor envelope sent by the local electoral office to the territorial electoral office, the envelope of the vote in accordance with Article 323 (4) of the Ve.

It follows from the above that the regional electoral committee shall take into account both the votes cast in accordance with Article 323 (4) of the closed and closed envelopes.

Section 323 (4) of the Ve. And any other section contains no separate condition, thereby legal consequences if the voter does not place the territorial or national listing of the nationality which are not elected municipal elections, despite the legal provision.

Ve. 323/A. (1) of the Act requires the voting committee and the local electoral committee to place the envelope containing the votes cast under Article 323 (4). The law does not contain any provision on the voting committee or the local electoral committee with ballot papers placed in the ballot box without an envelope.

On the occasion, when the vote counting committee states that there is no obstacle to the voter's voting on the basis of Section 176 of the Ve. The envelope is a tool that guarantees the confidentiality of the election, but the legislator does not have any legal consequences in the election procedure of nationality representatives and members of the European Parliament in the event of a passing and foreign representation vote.

The general rule of Article 182 (1) of the Ve., Which is directly applicable to the municipal election of the nationality in which a municipal election shall be made, provides that "the voter can place the ballot paper in the envelope", while Article 323 (4) uses the term "in the envelope". Although the two regulations use a grammatically different expression, the legislator does not order any legal consequences for the nationality voter does not put the ballot box in an envelope.

In the election of minority self -government representatives, including the nationalities where, in the absence of a municipal election, the voter only votes on the territorial and national list, the envelope shall only serve the confidentiality of the vote, as in the Fundamental Law of Hungary (hereinafter referred to as the Fundamental Law).

Since Ve. 323/A. (1) does not provide for the ballot papers thrown into the ballot box without an envelope, and for these ballot papers, a rule other than the general provisions, which is different from the general provisions, is subject to a rule other than the general provisions. The voting committee and the local electoral committee must therefore be enclosed in a conveyor envelope, together with the ballot papers closed in the envelope.

Like the open state of the envelope, the lack of the envelope cannot result in the vote and, consequently, the invalidity of the vote. Therefore, the territorial electoral committee shall also take into account these ballot papers in accordance with Article 327 of the Ve.

The Constitutional Court's interpretation of the confidentiality of the vote shall be, inter alia, by 32/2004. (IX. 14.) AB. In its decision, AB stated that the secrecy of the vote is not a fundamental right in itself, but one of the basic principles of elections, a guarantee of the exercise of electoral rights as a constitutional fundamental right and the democracy of elections.

Article 2 (1) of the Fundamental Law records the four classic principles of the electoral system with the same content as the previous Constitution, which are general and equal electoral rights and direct and secret ballot. As with the previous constitution, the provision of the Fundamental Law also formulates the constitutional requirements for the democratic electoral system whose warranty system must be ensured through the legislation.

According to AB's decision, the requirement of the confidentiality of the vote means that the content of the vote cast by each voter cannot be disclosed under any circumstances. This constitutional principle imposes a requirement for the state to establish rules for voting and counting and aggregating votes and providing conditions at the time of the vote that the votes cast by the voter cannot be known or determined.

The Ve. Requires the use of an envelope for placing the ballot paper in general, in all types of choice, as a warranty element. In some cases, the envelope handed over to the ballot paper is, in addition to ensuring the confidentiality, the validity of the ballot paper and the validity of the vote.

In the election of parliamentarians, the use of the envelope is a double function for the election of the passers and the members of the European Parliament for voters voting in foreign missions, unlike the general rules, by the legislator. Not only does it ensure that the vote cannot be reconstructed during the vote count, but also the validity of his vote. In other words, it can be stated that where the legislator wanted to expressly provides that the envelope for the ballot placement was not only an opportunity, but also the condition of the validity of the ballot paper.

However, the legislator does not connect the use of the envelope in the election of minority self -government representatives even if the municipal government is not elected in the case of a given nationality, so the voter can only vote on the territorial or national list.

The legal position described above is also supported by the provision set out in Article 193 (3) of the Ve.

Budapest, September 30, 2014

Dr. András Patyi
the National Electoral Committee
president

[1] It was repealed in accordance with Section 1/2021. NVB Guidelines, November 4, 2021