Right to vote

Article XXIII of the Fundamental Law defines the right to vote and to stand as a candidate as a fundamental political right: every adult Hungarian citizen has the right to vote (active suffrage) and to stand as a candidate (passive suffrage) at parliamentary elections.

At the general election of Members of Parliament, voters living abroad also have – although restrictively – the right to vote and to stand as candidates.

The right to vote and to stand as a candidate may only be restricted by the so called natural circumstances for exclusion: a person shall be excluded from the right to vote and stand, if he/ she has been disenfranchised by a court

  • for having committed a crime, or

  • for his/ her restricted ability to understand the nature of his acts.

In a sentence restricting capacity to act, ordering guardianship, ordering guardianship excluding capacity to act, or ending a review procedure, the court shall provide for the question whether a person shall be excluded from the right to vote and stand.

Based on the above, a person 

  • who is subject to a penalty depriving him from his civic rights; or

  • who has been excluded from the right to vote and stand by a court because his ability to understand the nature of his acts necessary for the exercise of his/ her right to vote and stand

    • is permanently, or in a repeated manner and greatly, diminished because of his mental health, intellectual disabilites or substance abuse, or

    • lacks completely and permanently because of his mental health or intellectual disabilites,

shall not have the right to vote and stand as a candidate (shall be excluded from both active and passive suffrages).

Those who, following a final ruling, are serving a prison sentence or are undergoing a forced medical treatment ordered in the course of a criminal procedure, and are not, in none of these cases, excluded from public affairs, have the right to vote, but cannot stand as candidates.

Every adult Hungarian national has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at parliamentary elections and at national referendums; voters with no Hungarian domicile can exercise their right to vote and stand after registration only.

Every adult Hungarian national whose Hungarian domicile is registered in the address records, is automatically registered in the voters’ register of  the polling district of his domicile. Adult Hungarian citizens with no registered domicile in Hungary are listed in the central electoral register after registration. Some clarification on this point :

domicile

temporary residence

type of enrollment

Hungarian address

Hungarian address

automatic

Hungarian address

none

automatic

foreign address

Hungarian address

registration

foreign address

none

registration

none

Hungarian address

automatic

none

none

registration

if not registered in the address records

registration

 

At the general election of local self-government representatives and mayors as well as at local referendums, every adult Hungarian and EU citizen having a domicile in Hungary has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate.

Every adult person recognised as a refugee, immigrant or resident has the right to vote.

Every citizen entitled to vote is automatically listed in the polling district electoral register of his/ her address. A voter who established a temporary residence at least 30 days before the calling of the election (and if that temporary residence has been valid all the way until election day), may vote in the polling station of that residence by changing his polling district. If the voter changes his polling district (and there is no modification in his registered addresses), he/ she remains listed in the electoral register of his temporary residence until the next local self-government election. (In other words, he/ she will exclusively be able to vote at by-elections of local self-government representatives and mayors taking place in his area of temporary residence.)

At the general election of representatives of national minority local self-governments, every adult Hungarian citizen who has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate may vote if he has registered himself as a national minority voter (he/ she has been listed in the electoral register of the given minority). In this type of election, EU citizens with a Hungarian domicile and adult persons recognised as refugees, immigrants or residents are not entitled to vote. 

At the election of Members of the European Parliament, every adult Hungarian citizen having a Hungarian domicile as well as every citizen of an EU member state other than Hungary having a temporary residence in Hungary, has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate provided that he has made a declaration that he wishes to exercise his right to vote and stand in Hungary.