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 the election committees authorized to handle complaints related to the participation of non-nationally distributed periodicals and local broadcasters in the parliamentary election campaign.

According to Section 44/A (1) of the Ve.,"Complaints related to the participation of the press in the election campaign (e.g., in particular, violations of the fundamental principles of the electoral procedure, the publication of political advertisements) are handled by:
a) in the case of a non-nationally distributed periodical or local broadcast, the local election committee with jurisdiction over the publisher's or broadcaster's headquarters or address,
b) in the case of a regional broadcast, the territorial election committee with jurisdiction over the broadcaster's headquarters or address,
c) in the case of a nationally distributed periodical, news agency, or national broadcast, the National Election Committee."
Based on Section 90 of the Ve., in parliamentary elections - with the exception of settlements with a single polling district - there is no local election committee.
According to Section 90/A (2) c) of the Ve., the parliamentary individual constituency election committee"decides on complaints related to the individual constituency election..."
According to Section 90/A (3) d) of the Ve., the territorial election committee"decides on complaints related to the territorial constituency election..."

The National Election Committee's position is that:

- the parliamentary individual constituency election committee with jurisdiction over the location of the infringement has the competence to handle a complaint concerning the participation of the press bodies specified in Section 44/A (1) a) of the Ve. in a given parliamentary individual constituency election campaign;

- the territorial election committee with jurisdiction over the location of the infringement has the competence to handle a complaint concerning the participation of the press bodies specified in Section 44/A (1) a) of the Ve. in a given territorial constituency election campaign.

Budapest, 9 February 2006

Dr. Péter Szigeti
President of the National Election Committee