Top court rejects referendum on Budapest 2024 Olympic Games bid

Budapest, December 14 (MTI) – The Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, on Wednesday upheld a ruling by the National Election Committee (NVB) rejecting a referendum initiative on Hungary’s bid for the Olympics.

The referendum question submitted in September by Katalin Krisztina Erdélyi, a private individual, would have asked voters whether they wanted parliament to withdraw the 2016 law on organising the 33rd Olympic Games.

The NVB rejected the initiative in October on multiple grounds, including the one that the law in question includes clauses pertaining to parliament’s authority to set up organisations, which cannot be subject to a referendum. The committee also said approval of the referendum question would “give voters the false impression” that the withdrawal of the law on staging the Olympics would also bring with it the withdrawal of Hungary’s bid to host the Games.

Erdelyi appealed the NVB’s decision.

The Kúria annulled the part of the NVB’s ruling declaring that the question affects parliament’s authority to set up organisations, but declared the question “misleading” and unclear, upholding the NVB’s rejection of the referendum.

Photo: budapest2024.org

Source: MTI