AT THE Košice housing estate Lunik IX, in Kecerovce, Rankovce and other municipalities in eastern Slovakia where Roma make up a majority, suspicions on vote buying have again appeared, this time in connection with the presidential election.
Six complaints were filed with the police.
At Lunik IX, where the voter turnout was the lowest in the country, Andrej Kiska won with 91 percent of the votes. In Rankovce, Prime Minister Robert Fico defeated Kiska by 48 percent.
Rankovce Mayor Stanislav Hada says the police attended the village several times and that he also monitored the situation, the Sme daily reported. If somebody had been buying votes, the turnout would have been definitively higher, he said.
MP for Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) Lucia Nicholsonová, who sat in the election commission in the Roma-majority village of Jarovnice, has filed a criminal motion over vote buying. She said they had offered her in Gelnica that they would secure Roma votes for the upcoming European Parliament elections for money. She allegedly heard about other cases from three trustworthy sources.
Nicholsonová said that politicians are managing for those who are pulling the strings in the background. The business is organised by usurers on whom Roma depend, Sme wrote.
In the village of Rakúsy with 1,800 Roma inhabitants, two Roma stood in front of the polling station. The head of the election commission has confirmed that one political party was campaigning there a day before the election, while a local priest confirmed that it was Smer. Fico won in Rakúsy with 70 percent of the votes.
The village of Sútor, where Roma make up majority, posted a record in the first round when 95 percent the local electorate came to the polls. Rimavská Sobota Mayor Jozef Šimko harvested almost all the votes. In the second round 50 percent of Sútor voters came and Fico won, Sme wrote.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.
