Kúria: Socialist MP rights infringed during referendum submission

Budapest, March 4 (MTI) – The rights of Socialist lawmaker István Nyakó were infringed when he was prevented in submitting a referendum question to the National Election Office (NVI) last week, the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, said in a ruling.

The ruling however left other parts of a decision by the National Election Board (NVB), the higher administrative body on referendum matters, unchanged, which means that the Kúria has not found fault with the NVB accepting the rival referendum question, which had been submitted a few seconds before Nyakó’s.

Nyakó attempted to submit his referendum initiative concerning Hungary’s Sunday shopping ban, but he was held up just long enough for Mrs Erdősi, the wife of a Fidesz politician, to submit a rival referendum question in support of the already existing shopping ban.

Hungary’s referendum rules state that while a question is being examined by a court, it is not possible to submit another question on the same subject, which is what made the timing of the submission significant. The NVB’s decision accepting Mrs Erdősi’s question can be challenged in another procedure, the Kúria said in its statement published on its website late on Thursday.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters