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:

According to Section 14 (4) of the Ve., "the head of the local election office shall arrange for the sending of the notification and the recommendation form".

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

Section 46 (1) of the Ve. stipulates that "a candidate may be recommended on a recommendation form. The recommendation form must be sent to 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According to paragraph (4), "the recommendation cannot be withdrawn".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 may be recommended on the recommendation form by handing over the completed recommendation form to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization", and that during the recommendation, "the recommending voter shall enter their family name and given name, address, personal identifier, the family name and given name of the person being recommended, the name of the nominating organization, or the fact of an independent nomination on the recommendation form. The recommendation form shall be signed by the recommending voter in their own hand."

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

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

c) collected in violation of the recommendation rules.

(2) If the same candidate has been recommended multiple times by a person, all their recommendations are invalid.

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

According to Section 52 (1) of the Ve., "the candidate (...) must be announced to the competent election committee by handing over the recommendation forms", including the lists referred to in 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 checking the number, 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 form."

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

According to paragraph (2), "the data of the recommender relating to the nomination are not public. In the event of an objection related to the nomination, the data on the recommendation form 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 delivering the recommendation form to the voter. This task includes arranging for the sending of the recommendation forms together with the notification, and providing additional recommendation forms for voters who have not received them.

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

An essential condition for the validity and authenticity of the recommendation is the handwritten signature. The other data can also be entered on the recommendation form in the presence of the recommending voter in another way.

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

However, a violation of the recommendation rules is when the voter hands over a recommendation form containing only their personal data and/or signature, or a completely blank recommendation form, 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.

Otherwise, the will of the voter expressed during the completion of the recommendation form must be respected to the fullest extent. Therefore, recommendations on which the candidate's name is not in the form in the birth certificate 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 designation but is otherwise unequivocally ascertainable (e.g., short name, acronym, etc.) must also be accepted as valid.

The recommendation process on the part of the recommending voter is concluded by the handing over of the completed recommendation form 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 not-yet-registered candidate does not submit the recommendation forms, the voter can no longer give another valid recommendation to another candidate. The recommendation forms handed over to the candidate or the representative of the nominating organization cannot be subsequently rewritten in the name of another candidate.

The completed recommendation forms are handed over by the candidate or nominating organization to the election committee. Recommendation forms can also be collected after the handover, but only within the deadline available for nomination and list submission. If the election committee has rejected the registration of a candidate or list due to an insufficient number of recommendations, all valid recommendation forms previously collected and those collected after the handover - within the above deadline - must be included in the number of valid recommendations.

The candidate or nominating organization may not make copies of the recommendation forms and may not use the data on them for the purpose of creating 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.

Resolutions that have ceased to be in force:

2/1998. (III. 14.) OVB resolution on the completion of recommendation forms

7/2002. (II. 7.) OVB resolution on the completion of recommendation forms

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

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