18 MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT ... The Electoral Procedure Act is one of the legislative instruments which incorporate the principle of the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose, by stipulating that everyone participating in the electoral process should respect the principles of section 3, including the principles of bona fide exercise of rights and the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose. The latter is a basic principle of the electoral procedure under the Electoral Procedure Act. Given that, under section 2, the rules of the Electoral Procedure Act are applicable to national referendums, the basic principles governing elections are also applicable to referendums. The basic principles governing elections are applicable throughout the whole electoral process and to all actors in the process ... The initiators of national referendums, the signatories of the initiative, those seeking redress in the procedure, voters, electoral bodies, and other bodies with the power to decide on legal remedies, are entitled to exercise their rights in accordance with the purpose of that right. ... The Electoral Procedure Act, in contrast to other legislative provisions, does not establish any criteria for determining which situation constitutes a breach of the requirement to exercise rights in accordance with their purpose; it does not even give any examples of when the exercise of a right in a way which does not correspond to its true content constitutes an abuse of a right or an exercise of rights not in accordance with their purpose. The Electoral Procedure Act leaves this question up to the courts. It is not possible to establish generally applicable criteria for the exercise of rights not in accordance with their purpose. The NEC, and the Constitutional Court acting as a forum for redress, can conclude, on the basis of the examination of all the circumstances of a given case, which conduct on the part of voters constitutes an exercise of rights not in accordance with their purpose. The examination of such an exercise of rights is not alien to the practice of the NEC. The NEC has issued a number of decisions in which it has established the unlawfulness of a certain kind of conduct based on a breach of the principle of the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose. ... The practice of the Constitutional Court also shows that the court has based its decisions reviewing the decisions of the NEC on the general principles of the electoral procedure, including the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose. ...” B. Decision of the Constitutional Court no. 3096/2014 (IV.11) AB 35. The case concerned an article that had appeared in a local newspaper of one of the districts of Budapest, published by a company owned by the local municipality. In the issue of 13 March 2014, preceding the elections, an article appeared with the following title: “The socialist representative voted against Zugló [the district in question] 90 times”. The newspaper published a separate article describing a different representative in a positive tone. The Constitutional Court held, in so far as relevant, as follows: “...