Slovak Police charge man with electoral fraud, Romani voters were bribed

For the first time ever, the Slovak Police have brought charges in a case of electoral fraud. Detectives believe the Slovak man charged allegedly promised voters a discount coupon worth EUR 5 and tobacco if they would vote for certain candidates in the elections to the Banská Bystrice Regional Council.

If convicted the man faces up to five years in prison. Police discovered other attempts to influence the elections as well.

The case in which charges have been brought played out at the start of November in the village of Šimonovec in southeastern Slovakia.
"He allegedly gave ballots with the numbers of the candidates he wanted votes cast for directly to people in public," the SITA press agency quoted police spokesperson Michal Slivka as saying.

Police say the man handed over the coupon bribes on the day of the regional elections and promised to give voters tobacco the next day. The suspect in that case has not been remanded into custody.

Police are still investigating two other cases of bribing voters. In the eastern Slovakian village of Jaronice, not far from Prešov, a certain person was attempting to get primarily Romani voters to cast their ballots for a specific candidate in exchange for similar perks.

In the town of Stará Ľubovňa in northeastern Slovakia, a different person attempted to bribe three Romani voters.Two days before the first round of voting, detectives allege the perpetrator promised the three Romani voters money if they would cast their ballots for a certain candidate to the regional council.

One Romani voter allegedly received the money immediately. Police see a crime as having been committed in the directing of the trio, who agreed to cast their ballots in exchange for remuneration.

"A criminal investigation has been initiated in that matter," Slivka told the SITA press agency.  No one has yet been charged in those cases for the time being.

This is the second year that electoral corruption has been a felony in the Slovak penal code. In the past, the country has repeatedly heard reports of voter bribery during elections.

One year ago, for example, the Slovak media reported that the populist Slovak National Party (Slovenská národní strana – SNS) was agitating for the re-election of Ivan Gašparovič during the presidential elections of 2009 in a controversial way. The SNS offered rewards such as cars or consumer electronics to mayors in order to motivate them to ensure high voter turnout and votes cast for Gašparovič.

In addition to suspicions of electoral corruption, the police are also involved in other cases that came to light during these recent regional elections. Police are investigating, for example, defamatory leaflets in people’s mailboxes, graffiti over billboards and posters, and rioting in the town of Považská Bystrice.

In connection with the second round of voting, which took place on 23 November, police are also now investigating three complaints from the Košice Region. In the first case a citizen reported it was possible to buy the votes of approximately 200 people for EUR 5 each.

In the second case, a candidate filed criminal charges over untrue information about him being allegedly spread online. Police are also investigating a possible third case of election interference, in which someone seems to have spread information via SMS text messages that may have influenced the electoral results.