Steven N.
Two independent Members of Parliament, Bernadett Szél and Szabolcs Szabó, have called on the National Election Office (NVI) to set up polling stations in large foreign cities outside of Hungarian foreign consulates and embassies for the 2022 elections, claiming that it will help Hungarians abroad who intend to vote.
In their request, the MPs are asking NVI to enforce the law, which already allows for voting to be provided at an external venue if the building at the foreign mission is not suitable.
In the 2014 and 2018 elections, there were large crowds trying to vote at foreign consulates in several major European cities, as Hungarian law does not allow those with a permanent Hungarian address to vote remotely despite the fact that there are many Hungarians abroad with just such a status. However, ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries, who do not have an address in Hungary itself and in most cases never have, are legally able to cast their vote remotely.
NVI claims that they do not have the legal authority to set up new polling locations, but are able to make them larger, which they are in the process of doing. MPs Szabó and Szél want the government to set up new foreign consulate offices on a temporary basis in cities where there is a demand for it.
The topic has been a priority for Hungarians living in England. At the beginning of December, a group named “Hungarians in England for a Change of Government in 2022″ launched a petition for more polling stations to be set up to allow them to vote in the 2022 Parliamentary elections, in an effort to eliminate problems that cropped up with voting in previous Hungarian elections.
[444][Photo: Bernadett Szél / Facebook]
