Voters who do not have a residential address in Hungary can drop off the envelopes containing postal votes at foreign missions from Saturday. Six foreign missions will have extended opening hours. At the foreign embassies, not only those who picked up the voting letter package can hand in the answer envelope

Voters without a Hungarian address had until March 9 to request their inclusion in the register in order to be able to vote by mail

456,000 people did this in the April 3 parliamentary election and the referendum held on the same day.

At the time of registration, voters by mail could choose how they wanted to receive the mail package containing, among other things, the national list ballot and the referendum ballot: they could choose postal delivery, but they could also request the mail package to be sent to a foreign mission or a settlement in Hungary.

The National Electoral Office (NVI) already started mailing the voting letter packages at the beginning of March, and those who voted by mail who requested to receive their voting letter package in person can do so from Saturday until April 2 at six designated locations every day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. in foreign missions (Ungvár, Beregszász, Cluj, Csíkszereda, Bucharest, Subotica).

Starting Monday, you can also pick up your voting letter package at six more foreign missions (Belgrade, Kassa, Bratislava, Eszék, Lendva, Lviv) every working day between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. until April 2. In the individual parliamentary constituency seat settlements or in designated border settlements (Battonya, Beregsurány, Biharkeresztes, Bódvaszilas, Csengersima, Fehérgyarmat, Kőszeg, Létavértes, Letenye, Letkés, Makó, Nagylak, Nyírábrány, Nyírlugos, Putnok, Rajka, Rédics, Tiszabecs, Tompa , Tornyosnémeti, Vámosszabadi, Záhony), you can pick up the voting letter packages on working days between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

On April 3, the day of the vote, you can still pick up the mail packages, then between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Those who requested personal collection must prove their identity with a valid photo ID. The letter package cannot be picked up by an authorized representative. The voter is free to decide how to return the envelope containing the ballots to the NVI: he can send it by post (free of charge from anywhere) so that it arrives by 7 p.m. on the day of the vote. You can also send it to any foreign mission for a fee, in which case the postal vote must also arrive at the foreign mission before the end of the foreign mission voting. At foreign missions where it is possible to pick up the ballot package, the voter can also fill out the ballot on the spot and hand in the answer envelope.

The reply envelope can be handed in at any foreign mission on working days; foreign embassies are usually open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but in Beregszász, Ungvár, Cluj-Napoca, Csíkszereda, Bucharest and Subotica it is possible to do so every day from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

At foreign embassies, not only those who picked up the voting letter package can hand in the answer envelope; that is, whoever appears at the foreign mission to hand in an answer envelope, without checking his or her identity, it must be ensured that he or she throws his or another voter's answer envelope into the ballot box. It is not objectionable if someone submits several answer envelopes. From March 19, the ballot boxes will be emptied every day and the number of votes will be reported, so it will be possible to monitor the development of the number of returned envelopes.

According to the plans, from the foreign missions in the Carpathian basin, the answer envelopes in the ballot box will be delivered at least once before the vote, so that the NVI can carry out the verification of the voter. The answer envelope can be handed in at the foreign representation during the foreign representation voting period (usually between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.), and in Hungary at the 97 individual electoral district seats, between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on the day of the vote.

Source and photo: MTI