On the 16th November, 1997, a national referendum is going to take place in the Hungarian Republic.

The process of the referendum is going to be shown openly and in all details to the international community, as it was the case during the 1994 parliamentary and municipal elections. All international observers will be briefed about how polling ward function, how balloting is carried through, how votes are counted, how the data-processing system works and how final results are calculated.

We have to show the world what we have achieved, and this means not only our being "weighed in the scales". It is also an exciting professional challange, if international experts show interest in our work, and also, it is an excellent opportunity to meet internationally acknowledged experts and exchange views and experience with them.

We would like to make easier this meeting by means of publishing those pieces of information that are inevitable to understand the legal background and the procedure of the forthcoming referendum.

In the First Chapter of the Electoral Guidelines No. 40 you can find the statutory provisions governing referendums in the Hungairan Republic and also, the substantive and procedural regulations as postulated by Act XVII and XXXIV of 1989.

In the Second Chapter you can find a study written by a foreign election-expert about prevailing Hungarian referendum-laws and based on research cunducted in Hungary.

Hungarian Parliament will possibly have accepted a new referendum law by the 16th November. However, this present referendum is carried out conforming to the statutory provisions valid on the day the referendum was called. We recommend you to follow the legal section on Internet where, you can also read the laws that have already been accepted.

The Third Chapter of this publication tries to help you to find your way in Duna Palace of the Ministry of Interior (Budapest, V., Zrinyi u. 5). The National Election Center that works in this building tries to answer all your questions by means of its all possible technical equipment and a huge apparatus.

Hungary would like to join the European Union. The referendum is a step towards this aim.

Dr. Zoltán Tóth