MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT
9
forth in section 2(1)(a) of the Electoral Procedure Act. The breach had no material
impact on the fairness of the national referendum.
The Kúria also examined whether the petitioner’s conduct infringed the principle of
the bona fide exercise of rights. In this context it emphasises that developing the
application and calling on voters to use it does not infringe the principle of the bona
fide exercise of rights. No malicious intent of the petitioner has been proven and the
decision of the NEC does not contain any substantive argument in this regard.
The Kúria does not agree with the NEC’s reasoning according to which the
application is particularly liable to shake people’s confidence in the IT and tallying
system for voting. The NEC did not provide any substantive argument in this regard.
Likewise, in the Kúria’s view, there is no aspect of the application or of the call to
voters to use the application that would be capable of shaking public confidence in the
work of the electoral bodies. Taking ballot photographs does not enable electoral
fraud.
The decision of the United States Court of Appeals submitted by the petitioner
shows that the sharing of ballot photographs has been the subject of litigation in the
United States as well. However, this is irrelevant in the present case.
Under section 231(5)(b) of the Electoral Procedure Act, the Kúria hereby amends
the NEC’s decision as set out in the operative part. The only reason to uphold the
complaint is that the conduct of the petitioner was in violation of section 2(1)(e) on
the principle of the exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose. The Kúria
upholds the requirement for the petitioner to refrain from further unlawful conduct.
...”
27. By a decision of 18 October 2016 the Kúria upheld the NEC’s
decision of 7 October 2016 in part. It reduced the fine to HUF 100,000
(approximately EUR 310). It relied on essentially the same reasoning as
above, adding the following:
“...
The petitioner lodged a petition for review against the decision of the National
Election Commission requesting, firstly, that the decision be set aside and the
complaint be overturned and, secondly, the setting-aside of the finding of a violation
of section 2(1)(e) of the Electoral Procedure Act, as well as the setting-aside of the
fine imposed.
In the petitioner’s view the decision infringes Articles 2 (1) and IX (1) of the
Fundamental Law, sections 2(1)(a) and (e), 47(2) and 218(2)(d) of the Electoral
Procedure Act, section 79 of the Referendum Act and sections 223(3)(b) and 219(1)
of the Electoral Procedure Act. ....
The petitioner also pointed out that in reviewing NEC decision no. 118/216, the
Kúria only found that section 2(1)(e) of the Electoral Procedure Act had been
infringed and not any other provision. It requested that the Kúria’s reasoning be taken
into account.
The petitioner also complained about the fine and considered the standard applied in
imposing the fine to be unlawful. In its view, it had not been penalised for violating
the campaign regulations, since the decision [of the NEC] had not established that
calling on voters to cast an invalid ballot was unlawful. The NEC had merely