Zürcher Nachrichten - Activists mobilise over Hungary election fraud fears

EUR -
AED 4.049778
AFN 78.834299
ALL 99.033342
AMD 431.456343
ANG 1.973823
AOA 1005.540147
ARS 1184.510488
AUD 1.740106
AWG 1.984619
AZN 1.871047
BAM 1.951157
BBD 2.225918
BDT 133.95119
BGN 1.953417
BHD 0.415629
BIF 3226.660051
BMD 1.102566
BND 1.473074
BOB 7.618042
BRL 6.190801
BSD 1.102437
BTN 94.108603
BWP 15.256919
BYN 3.607729
BYR 21610.297969
BZD 2.214448
CAD 1.554541
CDF 3167.672699
CHF 0.949657
CLF 0.027281
CLP 1046.908381
CNY 8.028391
CNH 8.030442
COP 4581.504452
CRC 555.45727
CUC 1.102566
CUP 29.218005
CVE 110.006211
CZK 25.045922
DJF 195.947771
DKK 7.461959
DOP 69.623267
DZD 146.912551
EGP 55.769964
ERN 16.538493
ETB 145.130438
FJD 2.566609
FKP 0.849767
GBP 0.842206
GEL 3.042781
GGP 0.849767
GHS 17.089472
GIP 0.849767
GMD 78.830087
GNF 9541.515201
GTQ 8.509592
GYD 230.665979
HKD 8.575705
HNL 28.207398
HRK 7.54001
HTG 144.267713
HUF 403.661068
IDR 18465.889357
ILS 4.082247
IMP 0.849767
INR 94.030872
IQD 1444.233926
IRR 46431.844181
ISK 144.314781
JEP 0.849767
JMD 173.672773
JOD 0.781606
JPY 161.04578
KES 142.506807
KGS 95.60528
KHR 4409.646484
KMF 500.014042
KPW 992.369183
KRW 1600.661596
KWD 0.339262
KYD 0.918627
KZT 552.612033
LAK 23885.559894
LBP 98786.765454
LKR 327.39557
LRD 220.466371
LSL 20.781097
LTL 3.255591
LVL 0.666932
LYD 5.33219
MAD 10.487244
MDL 19.686991
MGA 5027.940557
MKD 61.511679
MMK 2314.787019
MNT 3851.769118
MOP 8.833576
MRU 43.813776
MUR 50.023376
MVR 16.990372
MWK 1911.842309
MXN 22.023316
MYR 4.897654
MZN 70.451818
NAD 20.780251
NGN 1695.23982
NIO 40.564638
NOK 11.404074
NPR 150.576289
NZD 1.901293
OMR 0.424466
PAB 1.102556
PEN 4.048086
PGK 4.549174
PHP 62.857624
PKR 309.248804
PLN 4.227851
PYG 8845.546281
QAR 4.019435
RON 4.978193
RSD 117.17297
RUB 92.685108
RWF 1572.964625
SAR 4.136492
SBD 9.180809
SCR 15.773594
SDG 662.092022
SEK 10.787111
SGD 1.473199
SHP 0.866444
SLE 25.171542
SLL 23120.263604
SOS 630.003648
SRD 40.298877
STD 22820.894741
SVC 9.647255
SYP 14336.339478
SZL 20.788701
THB 37.64133
TJS 12.001035
TMT 3.870007
TND 3.373498
TOP 2.582323
TRY 41.871279
TTD 7.474586
TWD 36.451059
TZS 2924.510568
UAH 45.517981
UGX 4017.56488
USD 1.102566
UYU 46.573677
UZS 14239.435486
VES 77.098718
VND 28451.721382
VUV 136.24344
WST 3.123386
XAF 654.272445
XAG 0.034516
XAU 0.000355
XCD 2.97974
XDR 0.825967
XOF 654.373081
XPF 119.331742
YER 270.845622
ZAR 20.688194
ZMK 9924.417531
ZMW 30.622794
ZWL 355.025874
  • CMSD

    -0.1000

    22.73

    -0.44%

  • CMSC

    -0.2100

    22.29

    -0.94%

  • SCS

    -0.6350

    10.825

    -5.87%

  • RBGPF

    -0.2800

    67.72

    -0.41%

  • RIO

    -1.1880

    58.712

    -2.02%

  • BCC

    -7.5500

    94.52

    -7.99%

  • NGG

    3.7000

    69.48

    +5.33%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    9.8

    +0.2%

  • GSK

    1.4200

    39.06

    +3.64%

  • BP

    -2.3500

    31.46

    -7.47%

  • JRI

    -0.2200

    12.82

    -1.72%

  • BTI

    1.7800

    42.03

    +4.24%

  • BCE

    0.6500

    22.47

    +2.89%

  • RELX

    0.5450

    51.525

    +1.06%

  • VOD

    0.2650

    9.385

    +2.82%

  • AZN

    2.0950

    74.315

    +2.82%

Advertisement Image
Activists mobilise over Hungary election fraud fears
Activists mobilise over Hungary election fraud fears

Activists mobilise over Hungary election fraud fears

As Hungary's April 3 general election looms, civil society activists are gearing up to combat what they say are dirty tricks which have been normalised under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Advertisement Image

Text size:

Firebrand Orban has been at the helm for 12 years and is seeking a fourth straight term at Sunday's poll, for which an unprecedented 20,000 volunteer poll observers are being mobilised.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will also have a full-scale monitoring mission, only the second time it has ever done this for an election in a European Union country.

In a preliminary report published this week the OSCE mission voiced concerns about several aspects of the election, including bias in the public media and the potential for postal vote abuses.

It also said many of the concerns it identified at the 2018 vote had not been addressed.

In response, the government cited the pro-Orban Centre for Fundamental Rights think-tank which called the OSCE report "baseless" and an attempt "to provide a convenient excuse for the Hungarian Left, should they lose at the polls".

The last general election in 2018 was "the dirtiest of the last 30 years, since the end of communism," Zsofia Banuta, co-head of the Unhack Democracy election watchdog, told AFP in Budapest.

After interviewing 170 poll workers her group concluded that the 2018 election was marred by "major malpractice" such as transporting voters from neighbouring countries, bribery and intimidation, tampering with postal votes, missing ballots and election software malfunctions.

Banuta, 40, laments the fact that Supreme Court rulings, including against the practice of busing in voters from abroad to support Orban's Fidesz party, had "no consequences".

In contrast to Western European countries, "over the last 30 years cheating at Hungarian elections has become gradually normalised, that mindset should be changed", she said.

- 'Ballot tourism' -

Opinion polls indicate Sunday's vote will be the tightest since 2006, as Orban, 58, faces a united six-party opposition coalition for the first time.

Although analysts expect a close result, Orban is still favourite to win an election following a campaign dominated by the February 24 Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Orban has adopted a safety-first neutral stance in the conflict, sparking accusations by the opposition that he is Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ally in the EU and NATO.

Other parts of his "conservative revolution" have drawn the ire of European Union institutions, for example a new anti-LGBT law and the neutering of the judiciary.

In another development in a years-long tug of war with EU institutions, the European Court of Justice in February rejected a challenge by Hungary -- and Poland -- to a mechanism allowing Brussels to slash funding to member states that flout democratic standards.

According to the opposition, Orban's promising reelection prospects are in part due to his control of the media landscape and a redesign of election rules that favours Fidesz.

Unhack Democracy says electoral practices introduced under Orban are vulnerable to abuse and could be crucial in such a tight contest.

Banuta points to a law passed last November that allows voters to easily change the address where they are registered to vote.

"This opens the door to ballot tourism not only across Hungary's borders with Ukraine, Serbia and Romania but also domestically," she told AFP.

Unhack Democracy has designed an online course for poll workers to spot abuses but Banuta cautions that officials need to "not be afraid to report abuses".

She says in the group's investigations of recent local elections they found poll workers were on occasion intimidated out of filing complaints or were vulnerable to pressure from local Fidesz-linked officials.

- 'A small sacrifice' -

Another group called "20K" appointed by the opposition has recruited and trained around 20,000 volunteers to monitor the country's approximately 10,000 polling stations.

"For the first time ever there will be two trained poll observers delegated by the opposition in each station, even in the most distant village," said Peter Muller, a 45-year-old businessman, who helped set up 20K.

All volunteers have completed an online training course and have received a mobile phone app to log suspected incidences of fraud, said Muller's colleague Imre Kovacs, an IT expert.

"Last time around 13 percent of stations had no delegate representing the opposition, and another 13 percent had only one. Most suspected abuses in 2018 occurred in electoral districts where there was no opposition observer," Kovacs told AFP.

One volunteer, Laszlo Mero, told AFP that travelling 250 kilometres from Budapest to monitor polling in a village for one day "is a small sacrifice" for his country.

"In the last 12 years the rules in Hungary got blurred, and that needs to change," said Mero, a 72-year-old university professor.

T.Gerber--NZN

Advertisement Image