Hungary’s Opposition Demands Answers From Fidesz On Suspected Election Graft

  • 23 Feb 2015 8:00 AM
Hungary’s Opposition Demands Answers From Fidesz On Suspected Election Graft
Opposition parties have demanded that ruling Fidesz gives answers in connection with a “secret campaign team” and the former head of the party’s youth arm who stands accused of handling counterfeit euro notes. Radical nationalist party Jobbik demanded to know what role Áron Veress, the one-time leader of Fidelitas, played in the campaign team and which election lists he handled, as well as the extent of his remuneration and in which foreign currency it was paid in.

Referring to Gábor Kubatov, the Fidesz party’s director who was accused of illegally maintaining a database of voters’ details before the 2010 general election, Jobbik’s Előd Novák said it awaited answers from Kubatov and Fidesz’s party manager in connection with the Free Europe Team.

At the time of the 2010 general election Kubatov had given a speech, uploaded to YouTube, in which he let slip that the party had illegally gathered detailed personal data of voters.

Whereas it was lawful for parties and individuals running in an election to request the full name and address of the around eight million registered voters from the relevant authority or a local public notary for a fee, they were obliged to destroy the data on election day.

Last week, the opposition Socialists asked Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the ruling Fidesz party’s leader, to divulge what he knew about Veress and 9 million forints (EUR 29,000) worth of counterfeit euro notes police seized from him.

Despite Fidesz’s claims that Veress had been expelled from the party in 2012, he had been named on the party’s website as the head of its youth arm until the previous day.

Fidesz insisted it had “expelled from their ranks” Veress, adding that since he had been expelled from the party in 2012, they accepted no responsibility for his actions.

The leftist opposition Együtt party has said it will file a complaint with police, citing the illegal handling of data and harm done to the personal rights of citizens.

Viktor Szigetvári, the party’s leader, told a news conference held in front of Fidesz’s headquarters that Együtt would also turn to the state auditor (ÁSZ) concerning “Kubatov’s guard”.

Referring to an article on Friday in news portal 444.hu, he said a team of young people had illegally collected data from voters during the elections.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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