MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 5 II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE 18. The relevant provision of the Fundamental Law read as follows: Article 2 “Members of the National Assembly shall be elected by universal and equal suffrage in a direct and secret ballot, in elections which guarantee the free expression of the will of the voters, in a manner laid down in a cardinal Act.” 19. The relevant provisions of Act CCXXXVIII of 2013 on Initiating Referenda, the European Citizens’ Initiative and Referendum Procedure provide as follows: Chapter I General provisions “1. § (1) General provisions of the Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure ... shall apply – with the differences included in this Act – to the procedures falling under the scope of this Act. (2) The National Election Commission may issue guidelines for the election bodies to promote a unified interpretation of the legal provisions relating to procedures regulated by this Act.” 20. Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure contains the following provisions of relevance to the instant case: The basic principles of electoral procedure Section 2 “(1) The following principles shall prevail in the application of the rules of electoral procedure: a) the protection of the fairness of the election; ... e) proper exercising of rights in good faith; ...” 21. Guidelines no. 12/2014 of the National Election Commission on taking ballot papers out of polling station and taking photographs of ballot papers provides, in so far as relevant, as follows: “1. Section 182 (1) of the Electoral Procedure Act provides that the voter places the ballot paper in an envelope and drops it in the ballot box; as can be seen from the grammatical and legal interpretation of this provision, also taking into account the protection of fair elections and the bona fide exercise of voting rights in accordance with their purpose, ballot papers are official documents whose purpose is to represent the choice of voters and to establish the results of voting. 2. Thus, if a voter treats a ballot paper as his or her own and takes it out of the polling station or takes a photograph of it before placing it in the envelope or dropping