Hungary plans to amend the constitution, redraw electoral map

The government unexpectedly placed an amendment to the Constitution on the agenda of the Justice Committee on Tuesday morning, notifying MPs just about 45 minutes before the meeting, Telex reported. The essence of the amendment is that

the prosecutor general would no longer need to have a prosecutorial background.

Upon its inception, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán described the Fundamental Law (i.e. the Hungarian Constitution) to be "as solid as granite", while it was last amended for the 13th time on 11 June this year.

According to the current wording of the Fundamental Law (i.e. Constitution), "the Prosecutor General shall be elected by Parliament from among the prosecutors for a term of nine years on the proposal of the President of the Republic".

In justifying the amendment, the government argues that two out of the three people who have held the post of prosecutor general since the change of regime did not have a prosecutorial background at the time of their election, and cites other European examples, such as the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark and Sweden.

Hungary had three prosecutor generals since the change of regime, Dr. Kálmán Györgyi (1990-2000), Dr. Péter Polt (2000-2006), Dr. Tamás Kovács (2006-2010), with Polt appointed again in 2010.

In parallel with the amendment to the Constitution, another bill was also submitted to the Justice Committee, which supplements the regulation on the status of prosecutors, stating that if the elected Prosecutor General does not have a prosecutorial status, this will be automatically established after the oath of office.

The timing of the amendment is also peculiar because the election of a new chief prosecutor is not timely yet, as

Péter Polt was elected in 2019 for another nine-year term, so his mandate will not expire until December 2028.

Planned changes to the Electoral Act

Another key piece of legislation, the Electoral Act, would also be amended on the initiative of the governing parties, which would, among other things, change the number of constituencies in Budapest and Pest county and include technical amendments such as the abolition of the obligation to place ballot papers in envelopes.

The move would reduce the number of constituencies in Budapest to 16 from 18, i.e. 16 constituencies would be divided between the different areas of Budapest's 23 districts. This means that two fewer representatives from the capital's individual constituencies would become MPs.

The amendment could affect the opposition, as in 2022 the candidate of the six-party opposition coalition won 17 out of 18 constituencies. All constituencies in the capital have been redrawn. In Pest county, there will be 14 constituencies in 2026 instead of 12. Redrawing borders between constituencies can greatly influence the balance of power, possibly (likely?) benefitting the ruling coalition.

Telex reminded that the President of the National Election Office had called on MPs to alter the electoral map after the 2022 elections and, more recently, after the EP and municipal elections in June, because the current division is illegal. According to the law, the number of voters in each individual constituency can be up to 20% less or more than the national average. If the discrepancy is greater than 20%, the electoral map must be changed.

In recent years, so many people have moved to Pest County that in the 2022 parliamentary elections, the number of voters in seven constituencies exceeded the legally allowed 20% difference. In Somogy and Tolna counties, the opposite was true: far fewer voters than the national average were allowed to vote in each constituency. This disproportionality is also problematic because it means that a Somogy County MP needs far fewer votes than a Pest County MP.

The constituency is also important because it is essentially where the outcome of elections is decided. Of the 199 Members of Parliament, 106 are delegates from single-member constituencies and 93 are elected from a party list.

Under current legislation, the electoral law may not be amended before an election year, hence the governing parties have until year-end to remedy the above issue.

Under the proposal, votes would be recounted in the future

• if the difference between first and second place in a municipal election is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast, or
• less than 101 votes in a parliamentary election.

In the event of a tie, votes shall be recounted automatically in each case. Until now, a new by-election has been called in such cases.

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