Hungarian police investigate opposition’s handling of voter data – MNO

Police are investigating the opposition’s handling of voter data in connection with the local election campaign in the 8th district of Budapest, the daily Magyar Nemzet’s online edition said Tuesday, citing police information.

The authorities in the 8th district are investigating the handling of voter data by the opposition’s campaign branch there as well as allegations of abuse of personal data, according to magyarnemzet.hu.

The paper said evidence in the form of documents and photos showed that the opposition was creating an illegal voter database.

Data protection authority head Attila Péterfalvi told the paper on Monday:

“If press reports are true, not only was there unlawful data management but personal data abuse and election crimes will have taken place too.”

He said the law prohibits the recording of data and using voter recommendation slips for any other purpose than collecting a sufficient number of signatures for a candidate to be eligible to run in the election.