Election 2014 – Opposition Suspects Vote Rigging In Swing Districts

Budapest, April 2 (MTI) – The left-of-centre Unity alliance suspects potential vote rigging, insisting that the number of voters in swing constituencies has grown in the past two months.

Gergely Karacsony, a Dialogue for Hungary (PM) politician, told a news conference today that whereas the number of people with the right to vote had declined by 40,000 overall over the past two months, the number of “tourist voters” — namely people registered at a new address close to the election — had swelled in 12 voting districts where the outcome is up for grabs. These swing constituencies are mainly in Budapest, he added.

Socialist lawmaker Gergely Barandy told the same news conference that it was likely that ruling party Fidesz had organised the transfers. He said the governing party was luring innocent people into an illegal action, since registering at a fictional address is forgery of official documents.

Asked to give proof that Fidesz is behind the alleged “transfers,” Karacsony said the legislation that “enables” fraud had been drafted and passed by the current government majority that had also appointed the heads of government offices.

As another example, Karacsony mentioned that over 100 people had registered as an official address an average-sized house in Tornyospalca, a village near Hungary’s eastern borders.

The constituencies in questions, in addition, are those that “Fidesz would most likely be unable to win in a fair vote,” he added.

Karacsony said they will dispatch their activists to monitor at each government office issuing personal documents how many voters take over an address card on the actual day of the ballot, on April 6.

Speaking on behalf of the left-alliance, the leader of the Hungarian Liberal Party (MLP), called the presence of OSCE monitors at the April 6 ballot important. Gabor Fodor told a press conference that they would inform the OSCE monitors about each and every “suspicious case.”

Fidesz, in response, said that the party would initiate a lawsuit against Gergely Karacsony for violation of personal rights and would also file a complaint with bodies overseeing the election. “The left is now in such great despair that they hurry to explain their defeat in advance and they are making unfounded accusations,” Fidesz said in a release.

There will be a free, fair and democratic election in Hungary on April 6, governed by the most transparent rules since the transition to democracy, the party said.

Photo: parbeszedmagyarorszagert.hu

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters