The stakes in Sunday’s elections in Miskolc had been excessive: because the alliance didn’t come collectively, the Fidesz candidate ran in opposition to a number of opponents. The vote counters who declared themselves Clear didn’t report any fraud or irregularities. Nevertheless, there have been some unusual issues that we skilled once we had been there: in a single polling station, a minibus turned suspiciously many occasions, and in Arnót, close to Miskolc, a group of two mayoral candidates supervised the road inhabited primarily by Roma. Election report on Miskolc and its environment.
Lujza Sikoparija, aHang Borsod county coordinator, informed Átlátszó: after the frustration after the merger, essentially the most candidates of all time ran for the mayor’s title in Miskolc, a complete of seven utilized for the mayor’s title. The earlier alliance additionally cut up into two skilled camps after the reigning mayor, Pál Veres, introduced that he won’t run once more for the title of mayoralthough 5 years in the past he managed to beat the Fidesz candidate by a major margin.
The county coordinator of aHang Borsod stated: they discovered that many of the candidates had been very cautious to speak with their very own supporters at their very own marketing campaign occasions, and so they centered way more on slandering their opponents than on presenting their very own program.
Lujza Sikoparija, aHang Borsod county coordinator.
The end result confirmed those that feared that the votes could be scattered as a result of lack of unity: József Tóth-Szántai, the Fidesz candidate, obtained 40.22 p.c. second-placed László Barkai, candidate of the DK-MSZP-Párbeszéd-LMP, 22.18 p.c. The others are considerably behind.
Farhaat, 5 thousand
As he says: he didn’t obtain any experiences of election fraud this 12 months, however he has expertise from earlier years. Within the villages and small settlements round Miskolc – the place folks usually reside in a worse monetary scenario – it was typical to distribute meat, equivalent to pork loin, however in bigger settlements “the stakes had been larger”, they tried to persuade folks with potatoes and even money. These distributions aren’t primarily typical of election day, however they attempt to mobilize earlier than it. He has personally heard such tales, the place households obtained 5 thousand for twins who had been correctly retracted.
“When it’s different training referendum organized within the county, we additionally had the chance to speak to voters affected by poverty… On the first assembly, they instantly requested in the event that they had been distributing right here, and in that case, how a lot, whether or not there was cash or meals. It was seen that they had been asking these questions fairly merely based mostly on customary regulation, with none unhealthy intentions. Many individuals have expressed that they really feel that they haven’t any actual say in these issues, then at the least somebody allocates that little cash to them as soon as each 4 or 5 years.”
This 12 months, nevertheless, such information didn’t attain him on the time of our dialog, he says that there may very well be a number of causes for this: it could be {that a} actually constructive development is being noticed and that there’s merely much less fraud, or that issues are simply being completed extra skillfully and the folks concerned might not be reporting it. .
The voters got here with eight
We managed to speak to a number of vote counters in Miskolc. It was confirmed with out exception, which was additionally noticed all through the nation: lots of people went to vote, usually the biggest crowds had been within the morning and early afternoon hours.
Nevertheless, the voting went nicely, they may not report any atrocities, they stated that as a result of it is a regular neighborhood, comparable issues don’t normally occur of their district. One among them stated: essentially the most vital occasion was {that a} consultant introduced refreshments to the vote counters who belonged to his personal delegating group.
Election posters in Miskolc.
On the identical time, there have been suspicious indicators within the polling station situated not removed from the primary sq. in Újgyőr: round one o’clock within the afternoon, a minibus and a automobile arrived on the identical time, and a dozen folks bought out. The automobile waited for the voters, who, upon coming back from the polls, had a protracted dialog with the driving force – who was spectacularly our automobile whereas we had been ready – then bought in and drove away.
Though they arrived collectively, the van left empty – about 8 individuals who had left the polls left on foot after a brief stand, whereas a person a road away pointed them within the path of a surrounding road. One other minibus additionally rotated twice throughout our keep, eight folks bought off every time.
Taking a bus may be an election crime in itself: in line with the election regulation, it’s forbidden to move voters to the polling stations in automobiles with 9 folks or extra, and the group of transport and a number of turns are additionally in opposition to the regulation. Within the final election, the 2022 parliamentary election, based mostly on expertise, the “election taxi drivers” paid consideration to the previous, they usually transported solely 4-5 folks at a time, however observers from a number of locations reported {that a} automobile turned a number of occasions.
The candidates’ assistants guard one another in Arnót
In Arnót, situated lower than 10 kilometers from Miskolc, all the pieces was fantastic within the polling station, in line with a vote counter’s report. Nevertheless, he additionally added that he had heard of just one oddity, that too exterior the polling station. Within the neighborhood of the cemetery, a gaggle belonging to 2 mayoral candidates additionally guards the entrance of the road primarily inhabited by Roma – it isn’t recognized whether or not they’re checking one another to ensure that there isn’t any election fraud, or they wish to control everybody else.
After we had been there, we really noticed two automobiles parked on reverse sides of the car parking zone, a number of folks had been standing subsequent to them, apparently they had been settling in for an extended time. Somebody was sitting on a blanket unfold within the trunk whereas calmly smoking a cigarette, others had been standing subsequent to one another and speaking.
Though we did not cease, the truth that we handed by them did not go unnoticed – not lengthy after, a cellphone name got here from the vote counter: a member of the group informed him that he noticed that “he despatched younger folks to look at them”.
At half previous eight, there was no information of the election “observers”. Photograph: Clear/Bence Bodoky.
Round eight thirty, half an hour after the voting closed, we went there once more, then there was no information or ashes from the volunteer “observers”.
In Arnóton, three mayoral candidates competed this 12 months, the beforehand reigning mayor didn’t run once more. All three ran as independents: László Tószegi, István Oláh and Ágnes Gulyás competed for the title of mayor.
The vote counter, who drew our consideration to the weird case, stated that he knew that solely two candidates’ groups had been keeping track of the ominous space, however he didn’t reveal which two candidates they had been, he solely stated that one candidate alone begins, “he would not have folks,” so he thinks that could be the explanation why he did not ship a group to the issue website.
Zita Szopkó – photographs: Bence Bodoky
Cowl picture: Miskolc signal on the border of the settlement.
