According to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, Hungary is an independent, democratic State under the rule of law where the source of power is the people. The people exercise their power through elected representatives or, in exceptional cases, directly (through referendum).
The Fundamental Law says that the general election of Members of the National Assembly – except for elections held due to the National Assembly dissolving itself or being dissolved – shall be held in the month of April or May of the fourth year following the election of the previous parliament. The election shall be called so that the day of voting in Hungary is seventy to ninety days after the day of the calling of the election. The voting shall be held on a Sunday. The voting shall be held on a day that is a holiday according to the Labour Code, and it shall not be held on Easter Sunday or Pentecost Sunday.
The president of the Republic shall set the specific day of the election.
The National Assembly is made up of 199 representatives out of whom 106 are elected in single-member constituencies and the remaining 93 are elected from lists.
Voters having a Hungarian domicile have two votes at the parliamentary election. They may cast one of their ballots for a candidate in a single-member constituency and another for a party list or a minority list. Voters who don’t have a domicile in Hungary have one vote which they may cast for a list, by mail.
The election system
Members of the National Assembly are elected in a one-round, mixed-type election system.
Single-member constituency: The territory of the country is divided into 106 single-member constituencies. In each constituency the candidate receiving the most votes is elected.
National list: 93 mandates are distributed from lists. Parties and national minorities can put forward lists. Mandates are distributed in proportion to the votes cast for minority lists and party lists and the fragment votes obtained in single-member constituencies.
Nomination
1. A person may be candidate in a single-member constituency if he/she manages to collect at least 500 recommendations from voting citizens.
2. A party list may be set up by a nominating organization that has managed to put forward candidates in at least 9 counties and the capital, that is, in 27 single-member constituencies.
3. A minority list may be drawn up by the national self-government of a national minority that has managed to collect recommendations from at least 1% of the given minority electorate, but not exceeding 1 500 recommendations.
Distributing the mandates
The single-member constituencies are based on the principle of relative majority, which means that the candidate receiving the most valid votes will become Member of the National Assembly.
On a national list, no seat is distributed to the party list that has not obtained 5% of all ballots cast for party lists and minority lists. (In case of a joint list the threshold is 10% of all valid votes, for a joint list of three parties or more, the threshold is 15%.) Among the national lists, national minorities are the first to get their mandates if they have got the number of votes required by the preferential quota. The distribution of the remaining mandates is done following the d’Hondt method. Candidates get their mandates in their rank order on the list.
Party lists obtain mandates in proportion to the number of votes cast for them and the fragment votes from single-member constituency voting. Fragment votes are: ballots cast for party candidates in single-member constituencies which are not in sufficient number for the candidate to win a parliamentary seat, and ballots cast for candidates obtaining a seat which are in surplus from the votes necessary for winning the seat.
Parliamentary presence of minorities
To assure the presence in the National Assembly of national minorities is an important element of the election system. For this to be done, national self-governments of minorities are allowed to set up their own lists, distinguished from party lists. Voters registered as national minority voters may vote for minority lists. Minority lists can get their mandates on the basis of a preferential quota (one quarter of the number of ballots needed for a mandate from a list). If the number of votes cast for a minority list attains the preferential quota, the minority in question gets a parliamentary seat. The 93 seats obtainable from national lists have to be reduced with the number of preferential mandates distributed.
National minority spokesperson: national minorities putting forward a list but winning no seat will have their spokesperson in the National Assembly – the first candidate on their list.
Vacancy of a parliamentary seat
In the case of a single-member constituency seat that has become vacant a by-election is held.
When a seat from a national list or minority list becomes vacant, the seat is filled by a candidate that has been originally on the list and was named by the party or national self-government of the minority in question. If the organization in question does not name anybody from its list the seat goes to the next candidate in the rank order.