Where a regular vote was cast for another candidate in addition to the withdrawn candidate, it must be considered valid.

At its meeting on Wednesday, the National Election Commission (NVB) ordered a recount of invalid votes in the mayoral election.

In its minutes decision made with 12 votes in favor and 4 against, the NVB ordered the opening of all ballot boxes in the capital and the inspection and recount of the invalid votes in Sunday's mayoral election.

In the committee's decision, he referred to the fact that, on the basis of the evidence, it can be reasonably assumed that there are a large number of votes declared invalid, which must be considered valid according to the provisions of the Act on the Electoral Procedure. According to the NVB, a recount is justified in order to establish a satisfactory result of the election.

The votes are delivered to the National Electoral Office (NVI), they are re-counted by the NVB, but for this it uses the cooperation of the NVI.

Attila Nagy, the president of the office, indicated after the decision: he is instructing the capital's district election offices to deliver the invalid ballots for the mayoral election to the NVI by 4 p.m. on Thursday. Members of the local election committee will also be present when the ballot boxes are opened.

The NVB will start the recount of the 24,592 invalid votes - with the cooperation of the NVI - on Friday morning, and it is expected to finish that day, the vote counting will be public to the press.

For the recount, the NVB uses the guidelines contained in the polling day circular of the Metropolitan Elections Office, according to which, where a regular vote was cast for another candidate in addition to the withdrawn candidate, it must be considered valid.

The NVB has six days to decide on the appeal.

Mayor candidate Dávid Vitézy appealed to the NVB against the decision of the Metropolitan Election Commission (FVB) establishing the results of the mayoral election, citing that its content violates the law, because in 202 polling stations, based on the evidence, votes that were valid were also declared invalid.

Official: The Vitézys are appealing to the Metropolitan Election Commission

He drew attention to the fact that Alexandra Szentkirályi was the mayoral candidate of Fidesz-KDNP, but she withdrew within the legal deadline, so she was eliminated from the voting. It was no longer possible to print new ballots, so the Metropolitan Electoral Office arranged for the candidate's name to be crossed out.

According to the appeal, some election offices did not perform the draw in the same way, several of them were not clear, an easily confused line indicated the candidate's elimination.

According to Dávid Vitézy's argument, a large number of votes were cast where the voter cast a vote for the eliminated candidate, and then, upon noticing this, voted for another candidate, but according to the law, the vote for the eliminated candidate must be considered invalid.

According to the appeal, in 202 voting precincts in 20 districts, the vote-counting committees illegally classified such ballots as invalid.

According to Dávid Vitézy, the invalid votes and the illegal vote counting practice significantly affected the outcome of the election, so he requested that the NVB change the decision of the FVB, and that all invalid votes in all voting districts of the mayoral election be re-counted.

Four delegates did not vote for NVB's protocol decision: Dezső Avarkeszi (Democratic Coalition), Tamás Fazekas (Dialogue for Hungary Party), Gergely Gönczi (Momentum Movement) and András Litresits (Hungarian Socialist Party).

They referred to the fact that they had just over an hour to read through the submission, and in their opinion, nothing justifies a "hasty assessment".

They argued that it is in everyone's interest to make a well-founded decision, but speed endangers the well-foundedness of the decision. They also referred to the fact that the 202 polling station declarations prepared for the appeal do not mean that the error was systemic, so a recount of all invalid votes is not justified.

However, according to those who argue in favor of a recount of votes, it is in everyone's interest that the final result of the mayoral election be established as soon as possible.

MTI

Cover photo: Attila Nagy, president of the National Elections Office (NVI)
Source: MTI/Lajos Soós