Forged Voting Alleged At Hungarian Election

Chronicle (Levin), 2 September 1947, Page 5

Forged Voting Alleged At Hungarian Election

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter, Copyright)

Received Tuesday, 10.35 a.m. BUDAPEST, Sept. 1. The final offlcial returns in the Hungarian general elections gave the four Government parties 3,000,000 votes to the Opposition parties 2,000,000 votes. The Communists emerged as the largest party. The final figures are: — ' Government parties : Commimists, 1,082,592; Smallholders, 757,082; Social Democrats, 732,178; Nationalist Peasant Party, 435,170. Opposition parties : Democratic People's Party, 805,450; Independeuce Party, 718,193; Independent Hungarian Democratic Party, 256,396; Hungarian Radical Party, 93,273; Christian Women's Camp, 67,792; Citizens' Democratic Party, 48,055. Reuter says that almost 93 per cent. of the total electorate voted. The Government Coalition received slightly over 60 per cent. of the total votes recorded. The Commimists polled a fifth of the votes cast. It is likely that forged voting and identity papers and widespread plural voting will raise the question of the validity of the Hungarian elections, says the Daily Telegraph's Budapest correspondent. Social Democrat members oi electoral committees in Budapest found a Communist who admitted that he received £3 from the Communist Party to vote with forged absentee voting cards. He had 17 of these. Another man with 2C faked cards confessed that he hac received similar orders from & Communist trade union leader. Tc 6 p.m. 150 persons in two Budapest voting districts were charged with similar offences. In the countryside, voters were transferred by car lorry and even special train from district to district. More than 100c plural voters arrived in cars, lorne: and buses at Szekesfehervar Similar irregularities are reported in the more remote eastern provinces.