MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 7 information on the application. The subject-matter of the review is the decision of the NEC coming within the scope of the petition for review, that is, the decision finding that calling on voters to upload and publish photographs of ballot papers from the national referendum on a mobile application infringed the secrecy of voting, the fairness of the voting and the bona fide exercise of rights in accordance with their purpose. The complainant attached to his complaint as evidence the information about the application published on the petitioner’s website and on the websites hvg.hu and index.hu. The reviewing court thus finds that the complainant fulfilled his obligation to adduce the requisite evidence in support of his complaint. The NEC adequately clarified the underlying facts, and did not violate section 43(1) of the Electoral Procedure Act. The Kúria emphasises at the outset that the Guidelines do not constitute a legislative act and do not have binding legal force under section 51(2) of the Electoral Procedure Act; thus, they are irrelevant for the legal assessment of the present case. Although the NEC relied on the Guidelines in taking its decision, the latter should be assessed on its own, applying the relevant provisions of the Fundamental Law and the Electoral Procedure Act to the facts of the present case. Pursuant to Article 2 (1) of the Fundamental Law, Members of the National Assembly are elected by universal and equal suffrage in a direct and secret ballot, in elections which guarantee the free expression of the will of the voters in a manner laid down in a cardinal Act. In the view of the reviewing court, the secrecy of voting (voting rights) as regulated by Article 2 (1) means, firstly, that the right of all voters to a secret vote – not detectable by anybody –- must be secured. Secondly, a system must be developed that does not make it possible to establish how a voter has cast his or her ballot. The Kúria does not agree with the reasoning of the impugned decision according to which the application and its functions – and in particular the uploading of photographs, the sending of messages, the participation in voting, and the sending of notifications by voters – were openly aimed at infringing the secrecy of the vote and the referendum. The provisions of the Act on Initiating Referenda, the European Citizens’ Initiative and the Referendum Procedure, and of the Electoral Procedure Act, as well as the procedural rules on voting, clearly ensure that voters cast a secret ballot. The application attached to the present petition does not allow access to the personal data of the users, and is thus incapable of linking a cast ballot to a voter. The NEC reached the same conclusion. In the light of the above, the secrecy of the ballot was not infringed by the application or by the use thereof, and the NEC’s decision to uphold the complaint in that respect was unlawful. According to section 2(1) of the Electoral Procedure Act, the following principles shall prevail in the application of the rules of electoral procedure: (a) the protection of the fairness of the election; (e) the exercise of rights in good faith and in accordance with their purpose. The provisions relevant to voting are contained in sections 168-186 of the Electoral Procedure Act. Under section 180(1) of the Act voters must be provided with a polling booth in which to mark their ballot papers. Under section 182(1), the voter must put the ballot paper in an envelope and place it in a ballot box. Section 186(1) states that a valid vote can be given only to the candidates or lists whose names are printed on the official ballot paper. In the Kúria’s opinion – contrary to the reasoning of the NEC – the taking of photographs of ballot papers in the polling booth does not infringe the secrecy of