A citizen of another Member State of the European Union living in Hungary may decide to exercise his or her right to vote in the election of Members of the European Parliament in Hungary and to participate in the election of Hungarian Members of the European Parliament.

How to proceed

To be added to/removed from the register, an application must be submitted.

The request may be submitted electronically, in person, or by proxy.

1. Electronically

The application can be submitted electronically – with electronic identification – on the Personalized Administration Interface available on the www.magyarorszag.hu website by clicking here.

2. The request may be submitted in person or by proxy at any local election office.

The request may be submitted in person, and the form required for submitting the application by proxy can be filled in and printed here.

The request will be processed by the National Election Office through an automatic decision-making procedure.

Attention!In the election of Members of the European Parliament, citizens of European Union member states may only cast their vote in one country. The National Election Office shall inform the Member State which the voter is a citizen of, about the person’s inclusion in the Hungarian register, and that Member State shall remove the voter from its register.

Attention! On the basis of your application, you will be on the Hungarian electoral register - and therefore will not be entitled to vote in the Member State of your nationality - in the forthcoming elections to the European Parliament (unless you request to be removed from the Hungarian electoral register or cease to reside or vote in Hungary).

Attention! The personal data provided in the request must match the information on the s applicant’s official identification documents, and their Hungarian address must be valid.

When submitting the request, it is possible to provide a notification address to which the National Election Office will send the decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of the request.

Deadlines

The application may be submitted at any time, regardless of the election, but in order to be considered for the next election, the following deadlines must be respected:

• in the case of an application for registration, by 4 p.m. on the 9th day prior to the election,
• in the case of a request for removal from the register, by 4 p.m. on the 9th day prior to the election.

Documents to submit

No additional documents need to be submitted other than the request.

Payment obligation

Submitting the request does not incur any payment obligation.

Acting public authority

The National Election Office.

Contact details of the local election offices (if the request form is submitted in person or by proxy):

https://www.valasztas.hu/elerhetosegek

Supreme authority / legal remedy

An appeal may be lodged against the decision of the National Election Office on the application for registration/removal from the register of citizens of another Member State of the European Union, at the latest on the thirtieth day following the decision.

The appeal must be submitted in writing to the National Election Office.

- e-mail: a fellebbezes@nvi.hu or

-by post: National Election Office, 1397 Budapest, Pf. 547. or

- in person: 1054 Budapest, Alkotmány St. 3.

The appeal must contain

• a reference to the violation of rights or interests directly resulting from the decision,
• the name, address, place and date of birth of the applicant, and
• the number identifying the decision affected by the appeal.

The absence of the name, address, place and date of birth, and the number identifying the decision subject to appeal shall not result in the rejection of the appeal without substantive examination if the identity of the applicant and the decision subject to appeal can be identified.

The President of the National Election Office shall decide on the appeal, if it does not concern the central electoral register, no later than on the fifteenth day following its receipt, if it concerns the central electoral register or the register of postal voters, and the appeal is received no later than the twenty-fifth day before the election, no later than the second working day following its receipt, and if it is received after the twenty-fifth day before the vote, no later than the working day following its receipt, but no later than 3 p.m. on the third day prior to the election.

If the President of the National Election Office upholds the appeal, it will amend the register and include the applicant in the Hungarian register/remove the applicant from the Hungarian register for the election of the Members of the European Parliament.

If the President of the National Election Office rejects the applicant's appeal, it shall submit the appeal to the Budapest Metropolitan Court no later than the last day of the deadline for its consideration. The court shall decide on the appeal no later than the fifteenth day following its receipt, or within three days following its receipt in the case of a decision taken after the election has been called, but no later than the day before the election day.

Legal representation is not mandatory in court proceedings.

If the court considers the appeal to be well-founded, it will amend the decision; otherwise, it will reject the appeal.

Other information

The National Election Office processes the application, makes and delivers the decision - for all application forms - by using the election IT system, without human intervention, in the framework of an automatic decision-making procedure, with the following exceptions:

- by an administrator, in the case of applications submitted in person or by a delivery agent:

• identification,
• recording of the request, transmission of the decision,

- the assistance of an administrator is provided in the cases specified in paragraph (5) of Article 93 of the Act on Electoral Procedure (e.g. discrepancy between the data in the applicant's application and the data in the central register). After the assistance of an administrator, the application is processed in the framework of automatic decision-making procedure.

To vote, the applicant must:

- be a national of a Member State of the European Union,

- have reached the age of 18 (or married before that age)

Attention! You can apply from the age of 17 if

 - you have a registered address in Hungary, and

- you are not disqualified from voting either in Hungary or in the Member State of which you are a national.

Hungarian citizens living in Hungary are automatically entered on the central electoral register for the European Parliament elections, so they cannot submit such an application.

Relevant legislation

Act XXXVI of 2013on the Electoral Procedure

Act CXIII of 2003 on the Election of Members of the European Parliament