The Hungarian Parliament is debating several major laws at the end of 2024, including amendments to the Act on the election of the Members of the Parliament (‘Election Act’), another amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary and new rules on hate speech.
As Hungary approaches the parliamentary elections of 2026, the need has arisen to amend certain provisions of the Election Act, in particular the constituencies. The reason for this is that, under the relevant legislation, the number of eligible voters in each constituency cannot differ by more than 15% from the arithmetic average of all constituencies in the country. Given the significant changes in the population of each constituency since the last election, this amendment is necessary. On this basis, the most significant change is that there will be 2 fewer single-member constituencies in Budapest and 2 more in Pest County in the 2026 elections.
Following the lessons learned from the 2024 mayoral election, it will be included in the law that if the result is closer than 0.5%, the votes will be recounted automatically. Another important change is that voters no longer need to carry their address cards with them to vote.
Under a recently published bill, a person who writes a comment expressing an intention to commit a specific act of violence (especially violent death of other(s)) would be punishable by up to one year's imprisonment. According to the proposal’s explanatory memorandum, it would be outside the scope of freedom of speech to make comments that incite hatred against others and/or advocate the violent death of others. In this context, press products available on the internet would be obliged to draw up a policy (as long as they also provide a commenting facility) and filter these comments on that basis.
Finally, another amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary is under discussion, which would allow a person who is not a prosecutor to be elected as Attorney General.
By Bálint Éberhardt, Attorney at Law, KCG Partners Law Firm
