MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 23 photographs of voting or of ballot papers is in breach of the principles of the Electoral Procedure Act. Voting secrecy serves not only the safe expression of voters’ will but also the realisation of the voting procedure in accordance with the rule of law and the principles of democracy. Thus, its importance goes beyond the conduct of individual voters. Obviously, voting secrecy does not create an obligation of confidentiality on the part of voters, but the obligation to exercise rights in accordance with their purpose means that voters should not abuse the fact that voting secrecy can be only partially achieved without their cooperation. 4. In the view of the National Election Commission neither the provisions of the Fundamental Law nor those of the Electoral Procedure Act mean that ballot papers constitute the property of voters; therefore, the latter may not treat ballot papers as their own [property] and may use them only for the purpose of voting. Voluntary participation in the voting procedure does not mean that a voter may take a ballot paper from the polling station. Reasoning In the Commission’s view ... official ballot papers do not constitute voters’ property ... Voters cannot freely dispose even of spoilt ballot papers. The National Election Commission therefore finds that the only conduct that complies with the principles of the bona fide exercise of voting rights in accordance with their purpose, and voting secrecy, as enshrined in Article 2 (1) of the Fundamental Law ..., is if voters, while casting their vote, do not treat the ballot papers as their own but as a means to express their right to vote and to establish the outcome of the voting process. Thus, they cannot take the ballot paper out of the polling station and cannot take a photograph with a telecommunications, digital or any other device with the intention of showing it to another person. The purpose of these guidelines is to counteract electoral fraud (for example, through so-called ‘chain voting’) in the interests of protecting the fairness of elections.” III. COMPARATIVE-LAW MATERIALS 39. The documents available to the Court concerning the legislation of the Council of Europe member States, and in particular a survey of thirty-four of them, indicate that all the States concerned recognise, at constitutional or statutory level, the right to secret voting. 40. The majority of member States do not specifically regulate the publication of information by voters on media channels about the way they cast their ballots. 41. Two member States (Albania and Iceland) have explicitly regulated the issue of revealing voting choices through the publication of photographs, by imposing a ban on such conduct. 42. In two of the member States surveyed (the Czech Republic and Finland), the freedom of voters to publish information on their own electoral decisions through media channels has been upheld at various levels. 43. Three member States (Portugal, Armenia and Estonia) impose general restrictions on the disclosure by voters, by any means, of