This article was published online by the Magyar Nemzet on 1 April 2022.
Weronika Przebierala, one of the directors of the Polish legal institute Ordo Iuris, took part in an international election observation in Hungary at the invitation of the Alliance for the Common Good. She told Magyar Nemzet that she condemns recent events interfering with the election process and called for their investigation.
“If this information is confirmed, this constitutes another interference in the electoral process and the perpetrators should be brought to justice immediately,”
– said Weronika Przebierala in response to the Mediaworks Hírcentrum article. The article reports: left-wing prime ministerial candidate Péter Márki-Zay’s team committed severe election fraud. Over one million voters’ data was violated by a company, DatAdat, tied to former PM Gordon Bajnai, when they were sent SMS messages.
Today we found out about the Transylvanian ballots that were thrown out. We cannot underestimate these incidents; every detail of these cases must be investigated so it can be determined whether it is a forgery or provocation.
– added the deputy head of the electoral observation mission and Director of the International Law Office at the Ordo Iuris Polish research center. In connection with the mysterious ballots, Árpád Antal, mayor of Sfântu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyörgy) said: “This was clearly an organized provocation with the goal of invalidating the ballots arriving from outside Hungary.”
On Monday, as Mediaworks reported, online criminals hacked multiple Hungarian media platforms. Among these were Metropol, Nemzeti Sport, and 888.hu. Origo.hu reported that the left-wing criminals attacked the Mediaworks sites as well in an attempt to stifle conservative, right-wing voices. The hackers published information on the sites proclaiming that many of Márki-Zay’s campaign promises had already been fulfilled.
Weronika Przebierala said:
All such events must be equally condemned , regardless of what media platform fell victim. The right to choose your source of information cannot be called into question. The violation of this right, especially during an election campaign, is extremely dangerous. Moreover, to our knowledge, the perpetrator felt competent in deciding what was and was not true when they disparaged the portals.
Serious offenses in the final days
The Polish observer also condemned the fact that Fidesz’ website was hacked on Wednesday, making one of the governing party’s main communication channels inaccessible, and thereby disrupting the campaign. “This is another serious interference with the election process: the offense of taking away voters’ right to inform themselves becomes even more grave in the days leading up to the elections. It is obvious that campaigns have a significant impact on voter decisions,” she told our paper.
According to the latest updates from Thursday, multiple left-wing members will be joining the OSCE’s (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission to Hungary. Przebierala explained:
The OSCE is an internationally recognized organization whose mission is to report on election observations on countries throughout the world. It is not necessarily negative that the size of the delegation has grown. However, the OSCE’s report on Hungary raises doubts as the authors rarely cited sources and, quite worryingly, adopt the opinion of a political party when criticizing the Hungarian electoral system. In my opinion we must not forget the election observers’ mission, which an enormous responsibility: strengthen democratic institutions, build confidence in electoral processes, and stop electoral abuse.
Jerzy Kwaśniewski, President of the Ordo Iuris Institute, was interviewed by Magyar Nemzet earlier this week. He is the head of this election observation mission and believed that the OSCE released a biased, partisan report on Hungary.
