MAGYAR KÉTFARKÚ KUTYA PÁRT v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT 3 from taking photographs of their ballot papers in the voters’ booths and that their identity could not have been revealed through the mobile telephone application. 12. Meanwhile, on 3 October 2016 the same private individual lodged a new complaint with the National Election Commission, in the light of the fact that the applicant political party had activated the “cast-an-invalid-vote app” on 2 October, the day of the referendum. The complainant maintained that by operating the mobile telephone application and by encouraging voters to make use of it, the applicant political party had infringed the principles governing the bona fide and proper exercise of rights, and also the principles of fairness and secrecy of elections. 13. In a decision of 7 October 2016 the National Election Commission reiterated its previous finding that taking photographs of ballot papers had infringed the principle of the secrecy of voters’ ballots, the fairness of elections, and the proper exercise of rights, and fined the political party 832,500 Hungarian forints (HUF – approximately 2,700 euros (EUR)). The Commission supplemented its previous reasoning by noting that the mobile telephone application calling on voters to cast an invalid ballot could have influenced voters and had thus constituted unlawful campaigning. 14. The applicant political party sought judicial review of this decision as well. 15. By a decision of 18 October 2016 the Kúria upheld the Commission’s decision as to the finding of an infringement of the principle of the proper exercise of rights. It explained that the purpose of the ballot papers had been for voters to express their opinion on the referendum question, and any other use of them had constituted a violation of the principle of the proper exercise of rights. The Kúria overturned the remainder of the Commission’s decision as to a violation of the fairness and voting secrecy and the principle of the bona fide exercise of rights. It reiterated its previous finding that the identity of the individual voters had not been revealed, and emphasised that the conduct of the applicant political party had had no impact on the fairness of the referendum. It reduced the fine to HUF 100,000 (approximately EUR 330). 16. The applicant organisation lodged a constitutional complaint against the decisions of both 10 and 18 October 2016. In both complaints the applicant requested the Constitutional Court to “establish that the Kúria’s decision infringed its right recognised in Article IX (1) of the Fundamental Law”. It argued that “under Article 27 of the Act on the Constitutional Court an organisation personally concerned by an unconstitutional judicial decision, after having exhausted all other remedies, may lodge a complaint with the Constitutional Court if the decision on the merits infringed its right ensured by the Constitution. The decision of the Kúria declared the applicant’s conduct unlawful and obliged it to pay a fine, it was the applicant who lodged the petition for review with the Kúria, thus it was

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