Election committee approves referendum question on corruption, rejects nine others in Hungary

Budapest (MTI) – Hungary’s National Election Committee (NVB) approved a referendum question concerning the statute of limitations for corruption cases and rejected nine others on various other topics on Tuesday.

The question certified by the NVB concerns raising the statute of limitations for corruption cases to at least 12 years.

The question submitted by former LMP lawmaker Gábor Vágó as a private individual reads: “Do you agree that the statute of limitations for the prosecution of crimes of corruption should be at least 12 years?”.

The NVB was split 5-5 on certifying the question which meant that the deciding vote had to be cast by the head of the committee. NVB chief András Patyi voted in favour of approving the question arguing that it falls under the authority of parliament.

The committee rejected nine other referendum questions on a number of subjects, including two on the introduction of term limits for the office of prime minister.

Both questions were submitted by Barnabás Kádár, a board member of the Momentum Movement, as a private individual.

The first question reads: “Do you agree that a person who has been elected prime minister by the National Assembly on at least two prior occasions should not be eligible for nomination for the office of prime minister?”. The other one reads: “Do you agree that Act XLIII of 2010 on central state administrative organs and on the legal status of government members and state secretaries should be amended to declare that a person who has been elected prime minister by the National Assembly on at least two prior occasions shall not be eligible for nomination for the office of prime minister?”.

Both questions were rejected on the grounds that the restrictions they concern would require amending the constitution.

Source: MTI