Press at the elections

Press at the elections

Pursuant to Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure special rights shall be given to media representatives during the elections (including by-elections, repeated elections and referendums).

On election day media representatives may be present at the polling stations and carry on with their work without any preliminary authorization, from the beginning of voting (6.00 o’clock) until the end of work, including the counting of votes. However, they shall not hinder the activities of the polling station commission or violate the secrecy of voting. They are not allowed to look at the electoral lists nor take photos or make film recording of them. Polling station commissions can only give information about the number of voters. In the polling stations media representatives are not permitted to make reports with the voters. Furthermore, no election campaign activities may be pursued in public areas within 150 metres of the designated building’s entrance that’s used to access the polling station.

Pursuant to Section 20/B of KIM Decree 17/2013 (17 July) persons acting on behalf of the media shall certify their competence to the president of the vote counting committee with

  • their personal identification card (passport) and 
    • with an authorization from the media or
    • with a press card issued by a professional journalistic organization.

(With regard to local circumstances the foreign representation election offices at foreign representations may accept other documents from the persons acting on behalf of the media.)

On election day the National Election Office operates an election centre. (Address: 3 Alkotmány utca, Budapest 1054). Accreditation is needed to enter. The media representatives receive their accreditation badges on election day upon entering the election centre.

Based on accreditation, the following sites can be visited in the election centre:

  • processing of mail ballots
  • monitoring the result, possible press conferences (Ministry of Finance, lounge)
  • sessions, if any, of the National Election Commission (2. floor) 

Regarding the accreditation  for more information please contact:

e-mail akkred[at]nvi.hu