A VII. In an e-mail, the joint representative of the district asked the residents to support the candidacy of the independent candidate of the district, Andrea Nagy.
He wrote that the candidate, who has been a municipal representative since 2014, supports the apartment building’s applications, intercedes for the building in every possible way, and helps immediately, even if there is a problem with only one resident. “I don’t want to let this go, I want it to help our work in the future as well,” he wrote.
We received the email from one of the residents who got hooked on this unsolicited campaign. But does this conflict with any rules or laws? “There are professions where the chamber also lays down ethical rules. Such a profession belongs to lawyers or doctors. However, that of joint representatives is not like that,” said Miklós Gábor Weisz, professional director of the Association of Hungarian Joint Representatives. According to him, the action of the joint representative does not violate the rules, even if he himself does not think it is a good idea. (After the publication of the article, it was revealed that Gábor Miklós Weisz himself is a candidate for municipal representative one district away, in Józsefváros, in the colors of Fidesz.) “The task of a joint representative is to represent the whole house, the division in Hungary is so deep and wide that this method is not expedient,” he said. According to Weisz, there is nothing wrong with a joint representative collecting signatures as an individual.
We also asked the National Electoral Office. According to them, judging the legality of all campaign activities is the task of the local election commissions. This can be investigated if someone files a complaint.
“The joint representative gives his opinion that he likes one of the candidates because he does good work, writes good applications, is it good to work with him? This is included in the freedom of expression, there is nothing wrong with that,” says Dániel Döbrentey, head of the Political Freedom Program of TASZ. However, there is a second dimension to the case. The joint representative did not receive the residents’ email addresses to campaign, but to keep in touch with the housing community regarding the affairs of the house. “He could have said this by ringing the bell to the residents or at the general assembly, but he could also have posted it on the bulletin board, if the housing association does not specifically prohibit this,” he said. By the way, Andrea Nagy really knows something, because in 2014 she won the mandate as a joint candidate of DK-MSZP-EGYÜTT-FÜGE-PM-EEE, in 2019 she was able to repeat the victory as an independent, ahead of the candidate of the opposition and Fidesz .
Tags: wrong common representative vote
