Hungarian News

Fraud and Fear!

• April 1, 2022
• István
• 7 Comments

It is April 1st, what I have to report today is so strange that one might regard it as being just invented, but this all very serious. Already before election day we experience large-scale electoral fraud. And I am not talking about the systematic disadvantage of all genuine opposition parties in the need to campaign against FIDESZ and against the state. I am not talking about the strategic decision that those who were granted a Hungarian passport without ever having lived in Hungary may vote under the easiest possible conditions (even I, actually living in Hungary, can’t vote that easily.) And I am not talking about the high hurdles to vote for those Hungarian migrants, who want to vote from the West, from a country they know from own experience and not only from the regime propaganda.

However, for those not familiar with the Hungarian way to vote I need to explain the 5 different rules concerning voting briefly. We have 106 districts where a candidate is elected with plurality and 93 MPs entering along the party or minority lists. Who has a Hungarian address and actually is in Hungary can vote only in person on election day on the party list and on a candidate running in the district the voter has his registered address in. Generally in the assigned polling station for the registered address. Neither registration nor any other action is required, this is done by the state, based on one’s official address. This is the first and mostly used version. One may apply to vote elsewhere in Hungary, for example if working away from home. In this case the ballot of the home district is handed out in a polling station elsewhere in the country. The 3rd version is made for voters who are unable to go to their polling station, in this case voting at home, in a hospital, or in a nursing home (just to name the most important situations) can be applied for. This may also be done in combination with voting elsewhere in the country. Who lives abroad and has no official address in Hungary may vote by simple registration, which is valid for 9 years. The ballot is sent to the voter and is returned in an envelope. By mail, by collection through 3rd parties, dropped in Hungarian institutions, it doesn’t matter. These voters are only allowed to vote on the party lists, since they don’t have an address in a district. Last version is relevant for those Hungarians migrated to the West. They regularly remain registered in Hungary and only can apply to vote in person in those consulates that function as polling station, which is of course often far away from the place the voter lives. They may vote on the party list and a candidate in their home district. Nevertheless long rows appeared in front of the consulates in 2014 and 2018, the 2 earlier elections this election law was applicable.

That those never lived in Hungary may easily vote has been very much in the critics. Voting in mail always bears the risk that the voter dies before the election day. In most countries this risk is limited by making this way of voting available to those only, who apply for in a short period before the elections. The share of voters deceased since the elections in 2014 is significant, still in 2022 the ballot has been sent to them. But this was not enough for the regime. While I have to prove my identity within Hungary or in the West for voting by mail is having the key to the letterbox enough.

First irregularity beyond the designed disadvantage we heard from Vojvodina, Serbia. There everything was done by FIDESZ sponsored organisations. The head of the FIDESZ owned Hungarian organisations in Serbia, István Pástor, a good friend of Orbán, who acknowledged that to avoid delays a suborganisation would assist. CMH is an organisation that helped in both getting Hungarian passports and spreading Hungarian money. In opposite to the legal way of mailing the documents from the central Hungarian election office in Budapest “they brought it, filled it in, and took it away” according the description of a Hungarian voter in Serbia ►HU. Several witnesses told that they were pressured to vote immediately in presence of the person who brought the ballot, who was definitely no member of the Serb postal service. And if not all eligible voters were at home it was very important only to return the ballots to the party activists – although an addressed envelope is part of the set of documents, which would be delivered to the electoral office in Budapest, if handed over to the official mail service. At one office of the CMH was confirmed that they are involved in the distribution of ballots, until someone else came who decided that they would not be involved at all. At another office the journalist got the information that the activists have collected all ballots already, so if the journalist wouldn’t have got her ballot yet she could leave name and address and they would go and search for it. Another citizen described how he was called to go to a company’s office for getting his ballot. A company closely connected to FIDESZ. At the office the journalist asked about the possibility to leave her vote. She would have heard about just putting it into the mail, or giving it to activists collecting, she would be confused. Of course she could leave everything at the company, “I am activist as well,” the employee said, but was unwilling to specify for which organisation. Further was reported that because of the huge amounts of money the Hungarians in Vojvodina have to return something to FIDESZ.

In Romania the FIDESZ dependent party RMDSZ called not to trust anybody for the collection of ballots, not even the Hungarian consulate, but the party only ►HU. And yesterday in Transylvania partly burned ballots were found between rubble. All those ballots were not for FIDESZ. Now Romanian police collected them ►HU.

Of course the reasons to destroy votes for the opposition are clear. The regime is in panic and more and more openly started the fraud. Not the “fraud light” as using the media to tell lies about Unity for Hungary and to declare them being “dangerous.” Votes that are not according to Orbán’s liking are burned. Since Unity for Hungary succeeded in nominating more volunteers for counting the votes than FIDESZ the counting in the polling stations will be done more seriously than in 2018, while vote buying and black mailing can’t be stopped with this measure. Last year the formerly illegal photographing of ballots is now allowed, so the voter can prove having voted as he was told. Moving is no longer required to vote in a district where FIDESZ is weak, it is enough to declare having a new address in any office of the central government for voting in that other district. Obviously all this was regarded to be not enough. If the X is made in the “wrong” circle it must be burned.

Péter Márki-Zay called for declaring the voting in mail being invalid. A logical consequence, however this would require to repeat the voting with stricter rules. And even if this would be the decision either of the national electoral office or the supreme court, it for sure would be turned over by the constitutional court, which always does what Orbán requires. FIDESZ is not afraid of committing crimes, but of losing power.

So was their reaction as well. The opposition has burned these ballots. Of course. And the opposition has burned the TV in 2006. Of course. Just that the opposition those days was lead by someone called Viktor Orbán. But the “left” did so ►HU. Another fraud. As well as the declaration Unity for Hungary would have collected illegally lists they would call after now. Well, they do call, but I very well remember that I needed to agree with giving my personal data and for what these will be used. Makes it pretty legal, just in opposite to the Kubatov list of FIDESZ, which has been collected secretly.

Fear of losing power was also the reason why for example the ballot in the district Somogy 1 looks a bit rare. The candidate of Unity for Hungary is István Varga (DK). His name is far from being seldom, it is the 5th most used family name in Hungary according to Wikipedia. Also Orbán’s own ministers of justice and finances both share this family name. And the 1st name on the ballot for this district is István Varga. But not the candidate of Unity for Hungary, but an “independent” ►HU. The candidate of Unity for Hungary is on position 9 the last one, right behind the 3rd Varga in the race, Tamás Varga of communist Munkáspárt. To make it more confusing another regional well-known name, Ákos Horváth, is the 3rd on the ballot (this is the 6th often found family name.) But again someone with the name, not the same Ákos Horváth (Jobbik) who was participating in the primaries. Attila Gelencsér (FIDESZ) has to face to be voted out, in 2018 he only got 43.69 % of the votes. Népszava made the effort to search for the 2 namesakes and found them. Horváth sent the journalist away, Varga gave a very revealing interview. “His torn pyjamas are embarrassing, and not just because of the afternoon” the 1st impression was ►HU. The conservation with politicians are in most cases short questions with the rare exception of a clear “yes” or “no” answers long replies. In this case the candidate barely answered in full sentences, revealing that he not quite knows anything about his own candidature, difficult was the questions how he collected the 500 signatures to be able to run. He sounds like a primitive man abused for just having the right name. But this doesn’t matter to FIDESZ, as long as enough votes are stolen from the genuine candidate of Unity for Hungary.

Fraud and fear everywhere.