Transparency of elections to be ensured in Hungary

Hungary’s new Sovereignty Protection Office will be tasked to ensure transparency of the upcoming local and European Parliament elections and the pre-election campaign as “its first major task”, Tamás Lánczi, appointed to head the new body, to be set up before 2 February, told public television on Tuesday.

The new body will aim to “protect the country’s economic, cultural, communication and political identity and independence,” Lánczi said, adding that “the office will not be an authority having primarily analytic and fact-finding tasks.” The office “will not launch probes or impose sanctions,” he added.

The office will cooperate with other agencies and “make possible violations public and report to the respective state organs,” he said, adding that the office could “call the attention of lawmakers to any legal deficiency or the need for an authority to act”.

For example, Lánczi said recipients of illegal party financing could face imprisonment but “the punishment will not be imposed by the office but by the respective state authority”.

The new office will be tasked to “prevent foreign attempts to influence the elections and if seeing signs of such activities it will alert the authorities,” he said.

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