Hungary’s European Parliament election campaign kicks off on Saturday.
Twenty-four parties have so far registered to run for the 21 seats available to Hungary in the European Parliament. The campaign officially begins on Saturday, April 6th.
Rmx.news points out that on March 1st, President János Áder set the election date for May 26th and as the law allows for a 50-day campaign, it will begin on April 6th.
Political parties have until April 23rd to gather the required 20,000 signatures to officially enter the race. So far, 24 parties have submitted their registration. For reasons of transparency and accountability, media ads can only be ran by media that have submitted their official ad pricing with the State Audit Office (ÁSZ) until March 8th. By that deadline, ÁSZ received the registration of 121 print and 85 electronic media.
Political ads must be "instantly identifiable and unmistakable", with the identity and address of the advertiser clearly stated. However, television and radio stations that want to run campaign ads must do so for free, under equal conditions for all applicants and without any commentary attached.
Hungary, with a population of 9.7 million has just over eight million voters. Since joining the European Union on May 1st, 2004, Hungarians voted at three EP elections (2004, 2009 and 2014) and at the last election Hungarian voters' turnout has been 29 percent, well below the EU average of 42 percent.