The Hungarian System of Electing Members for The European Parliament Cover Image

Az európai parlament tagjai megválasztásának magyar rendszere
The Hungarian System of Electing Members for The European Parliament

Author(s): László Imre Kovács
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: MTA Politikai Tudományi Intézete

Summary/Abstract: Together with nine other States, Hungary acceded to the European Union, thus 25 Member States held European Parliamentary elections in June, 2004. The legal preconditions of the elections had to be established in all accessing countries. According to the legal system of the European Union, all EU citizens are entitled to vote in any Member State where they reside. The National Parliaments have the responsibility of developing the electoral systems with respect to the recommendations of the Council of the European Union. Based on these, PR-systems (party list systems or STV) need to be applied with a treshold of maximum 5 percent. The Hungarian Parliament legislated several Acts. The current paper analyses the content of these Acts and demonstrates the debates that occured during the process of legislation. The Parties soon reached an agreement on the first question, which was related to the suffrage. They modified the relevant dispositions of the Hungarian Constitution and solved an issue that had been on the agenda for a long time as well. Until this point, those citizens who stayed abroad at the time of the natioanl parliamentary elections or referendums did not have an opportunity to vote. Yet from this point, voting on the embassies became possible. As a consequence of the mistrust between the Parties, the procedure appeared to be comlpicated and expensive as a result of the pressure of the Fidesz-MPSZ. Athough, it had been modified before the elections due to the influence of the press and public opinion. The party list system became the method of the elections, in which the whole country constitutes one district. Other elements of the system favour stronger Parties: the algorythm is the d’Hondt method and the treshold is the maximum, 5 percent. The possibility of preferential vote emerged as well (which is strongly advised by the Council and is applied by most Member States) but the Hungarian Parliament chose the closed list, which is also a simlpler way for the party elite.

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 21-58
  • Page Count: 38
  • Language: Hungarian