"Budapest Police suspect three Borsod county Free Democrat chapter members of document forgery in connection with the electoral irregularities at the party’s convention in March last year, Budapest Police spokeswoman Éva Tafferner told Magyar Hírlap on Tuesday. More suspects are expected in the near future, she added.More than 30 Borsod and Szabolcs county party delegates have been questioned as witnesses in the investigation.
Tafferner said police had not examined what final result the party convention would have brought if the suspected members had not cast illegal votes.
National council leader József Gulyás said he will ask the party executive to suspend the party membership of the three members.
HírTV last February aired a programme that asserted the Free Democrat leadership election in March of last year had been manipulated, and as a consequence János Kóka had beaten Gábor Fodor for the top party post in the second round of voting.
Entrepreneur Péter Köteles later said he had informed HírTV that certain members had manipulated the election of the party chairman and others had cast a vote for Kóka in the absence of four or five Borsod delegates.
An internal investigation established that it could not be ascertained for whom the bogus delegates had voted, but that it was proven they had not cheated for Kóka’s benefit."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
This news item is one of many published daily by HATC, a premier subscription news service which distributes English-language info about Hungary via email or fax. For a free trial of HATC follow this link and click on 'Free Trial Subscription'.
14.08.2008