Governing party gives up voter registration idea

Hungary's governing party Fidesz abandoned plans to require voters to sign up beforehand to be able to vote at the 2014 national elections and other referendums, after the Constitutional Court threw out some of the proposed legislation.

"Mindful of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court has established that for those with Hungarian residency the registration requirement represents an undue restriction on voting rights and is therefore unconstitutional," the court said in a statement.

The Reuters news agency remarks that the Court ruling and the retreat represent a major blow to conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who swept to power with a two-thirds majority in 2010 parliamentary elections.

It says Orbán's Fidesz-Christian Democrat alliance approved a new voting system in November in one of the most hotly contested steps of a two-year flurry of reforms that included a new constitution and a swathe of laws that critics say entrench Fidesz's power.

The legislation approved by the governing majority in parliament and flatly rejected by all the opposition parties was to introduce mandatory voter registration, a move sharply criticized by the political opposition as a requirement infringing on basic rights and favoring the current governing parties.