Restriction of suffrage in Hungary

The current Hungarian government is being accused for its antidemocratic ambitions since it has come into power, and actually its leading party, Fidesz, has been blamed for such aims even since before. In the last few weeks the most debated issue is the future election law, which enables to vote on the elections only those, who register for it before in their assigned beats. According to the government’s previous justifications this new law would enable to increase the political consciousness of citizens and enlighten the participation of the Ethno-Hungarian voters, that do not have official address in Hungary, but are Hungarian citizens. However, the most recent news reveal that the registration law does not aim equal opportunity, because the new law proposal regulates registration in such a way, that on the one hand those citizens who have suffrage and official address in Hungary, can register for participation on the elections only personally at their respective territorial authorities or online, which can be problematic for inhabitants of little villages. On the other hand citizens that have suffrage but do not have official address in Hungary can fulfill the registration duty even via mail. So it is clear that the aim is to enlighten involvement in the elections for those who are expected to support the current government on an election to come (in 2014) and to render it more complicated to the majority. On the top of that, the government plans to include such regulation of registration in the so called „Fundamental Law”, which was created by this very government after having eliminated the former Constitution. (A little explanation for those who have arrived only in the last month: the two allied parties, Fidesz and the Christian-Democratic Party is governing with the support of more than 50% of representatives of the Parliament, which enabled them to modify the Constitution.) However it is still a question whether Hungarians living in the neighboring countries will vote for Fidesz or its allied party only because they are expected to be supporters of the nationalist right wing?

Agnes Kelemen

Nationalism Studies

Hungary