Amendments to election procedures law to raise guarantees, says Fidesz

Budapest, May 18 (MTI) - New amendments to the election procedures law will represent added guarantees that prevent the possibility of influencing election results, Gergely Gulyas of the ruling Fidesz said on Saturday.

The amendments, submitted to Parliament on Saturday, have been prepared in line with recommendations by rights organisations including Transparency International and Eotvos Karoly Institute, Gulyas said.

As a result of the amendments, daily updates will be published on the number of those that prescribe on a list of voters by post and at foreign representative offices, he said. Additionally, members of the national election committee and international observers will be allowed to compare these daily updates with other documents, such as registration requests and the list of voters casting their ballot by post.

All parties with national lists will be allowed to delegate additional five experts and they will have the opportunity to check the counting of votes, Gulyas said.

The rules for checking the votes of citizens with no Hungarian residency will also change. After receiving these votes, they will be matched against a registry and the votes will only be accepted if no discrepancies are revealed. The press, the observers and the members of the election committee will be able to monitor this process, he added.

Another new development will be that mid-term parliamentary elections cannot be held after September 1, Gulyas said.

Parliament is expected to start debating the amendments to the election procedures law next week, he added.