NVB Directive 5/2014

on certain issues of checking recommendations [1]

The National Election Committee, acting within its competence as laid down in Section 51 (1) of Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure (hereinafter: Ve.), issues the following

directive:

adja ki:

1. In the course of checking recommendations, in addition to enforcing the legal requirement of a full match, in order to respect the will of the voter expressed in the recommendation given to the candidate or the nominating organization, those recommendations must be accepted as valid which were collected in compliance with the recommendation rules, the voter indicated all their data on the recommendation sheet and on the basis of which the voter can be clearly identified, but a small discrepancy can be observed in some of their data on the recommendation sheet compared to the data in the central voter register, as follows:

a, did not indicate the designation "dr." next to their name, but it is included in their name in the central voter register;

b, indicated, but the prefixes junior, senior, widow, or their abbreviations are not included as part of their name in the central voter register;

c, in the case of their own name, indicated only one of their multiple given names that are in the central voter register;

d, in the case of their mother's name, indicated only one of her multiple given names that are in the central voter register;

e, indicated the settlement data of their address in an abbreviated form, but the settlement can be clearly identified during the check (e.g., Budapest-Bp., Debrecen-Db.), especially with regard to the given postal code;

f, indicated the name of the public area in their address not in accordance with the rules of Hungarian spelling (e.g., Kossuth utca - Kosút utca), but the name of the public area can be clearly identified, or the name of the public area has changed and it was indicated according to the old name (e.g.: Moszkva tér - Széll Kálmán tér);

g, did not provide the type of public area in the same way as in the central voter register, but the given type of public area belongs to the same category (e.g., út - útja - utca - körút, tér - tere - körtér, köz - köze, sor - ároksor - fasor), or indicated the type of public area differently from the central voter register in an abbreviated form (e.g., utca - u., körút - krt.).

2. After the election office has checked the recommendations, the representative of the voter intending to run as an individual candidate and the nominating organization wishing to nominate a candidate are entitled to view the information prepared in accordance with Section 127 (3) of the Ve. even before the decision of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee, and may request information about the reasons for invalidity affecting the recommendations considered invalid and may make comments in connection with them. In this case, a copy of the recommendation sheets cannot be requested either.

The directive aims to interpret the following provisions of the Ve.:

"2. § (1) When applying the rules of the electoral procedure, the following fundamental principles must be enforced:

(..)

f) publicity of the electoral procedure.

(2) The data available to the election bodies are public, with the exception established by law."

"122. § (5) The recommendation cannot be withdrawn."

"125. § (1) The election office checks the recommendations.

(2) During the checking of the recommendations, the fulfillment of the requirements in Section 122 must be examined, the recommending voter must be identified, it must be determined whether they have the right to vote, and it must be determined whether the number of valid recommendations reaches the number required for candidacy.

(3) The identification of the recommending voter and the determination of their right to vote must be carried out by comparing the data indicated on the recommendation sheet with the data in the central voter register and the register of polling districts and constituencies."

"126. § The recommendation is valid if

a) the recommending voter was entitled to recommend a candidate in the constituency at any time between the forty-eighth day before the vote and the day of submitting the recommendation sheet,

b) the data of the recommending voter indicated on the recommendation sheet fully match the data in the central voter register,

c) the recommendation meets the requirements of Section 122."

"127. § (1) The checking of the recommendations must be carried out within three days of the candidate's registration.

(2) The itemized checking of the recommendations does not have to be continued if it becomes certain that the number of valid recommendations reaches the number required for candidacy.

(3) The election office informs the election committee competent for the candidate's registration about the results of the checking of the recommendations."

Justification

The Fundamental Law of Hungary, in Article XXIII, regulates the right to vote. The enforcement of the right to vote as a fundamental constitutional right of citizens, and within this, the promotion of the enforcement of the clearly expressed will of the voter, is one of the basic tasks of the election bodies involved in the electoral procedure. Act CCIII of 2011 on the election of parliamentary representatives, in Section 6, requires the collection of 500 valid recommendations as a condition for candidacy. The validity of the recommendation is a legal condition not only for the clearly expressed will of the voter, but also for the clear identification of the voter who expresses the will. The Ve. requires the legal requirement of a full match between the data in the central voter register and the voter data entered on the recommendation sheet in order to ensure the clarity and verifiability of the voter's will-declaration towards the nominating organization and/or the candidate. However, the purpose of this provision cannot be to hinder the enforcement of the voter's will due to minor partial data discrepancies when the voter is clearly identified by the election bodies. This is particularly emphasized by the fact that the recommendation, as a declaration of the voter's will, cannot be withdrawn according to Section 122 (5) of the Ve.

Starting from this interpretation, the National Election Committee considers those recommendations acceptable in the context of the requirement of a full match where minor partial data discrepancies can be observed compared to the data in the central voter register. It is self-evident that those recommendations do not meet this legal requirement and cannot be accepted as valid where a data type is not provided at all or is provided with a significant discrepancy or omission (e.g., only a surname is indicated, the personal identifier is incomplete or inaccurate, the address data does not contain a settlement name or house number, etc.). The recommendations submitted with the minor discrepancies specifically listed in the operative part of this directive contain a declaration of will (support for the future candidate) based on a wide range of personal data provision in addition to the identification of the voter.

It follows from the fundamental principle of the publicity of the electoral procedure and the provision of Section 2 (2) of the Ve. that the election office provides the voter intending to run as a candidate and the representative of the nominating organization with the opportunity to inspect the documents prepared about the checking of the recommendations.

Based on Section 132 of the Ve., in the procedure for registering a candidate, the competent election committee relies decisively on the information provided by the election office according to Section 127 (3) of the Ve. The National Election Committee's position is that, according to Section 43 (2) of the Ve., in the procedure of the parliamentary individual constituency election committee, other evidence may also be used in addition to the information provided by the election office, especially the statement of the voter intending to run as a candidate or the representative of the nominating organization in connection with the results of the checking of the recommendations. According to Section 43 (5) of the Ve., the election committee evaluates the evidence individually and as a whole, and on the basis of its conviction based on this, it establishes the facts. The statement of the voter intending to run as a candidate or the representative of the nominating organization in connection with the results of the checking of the recommendations can facilitate the election committee in making this decision.

Budapest, 25 February 2014

Dr. András Patyi
President of the National Election Committee
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[1] Repealed by Directive 1/2021. NVB, Ineffective: from 4 November 2021