FREE EXPRESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26117, 2 April 1946, Page 5

FREE EXPRESSION

GREEK PEOPLE'S WILL CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS CONFLICTING REPORTS (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, Apl. 1. The Greek Populist Party leaaer, M. Tsaldaris, said the elections were being held in an absolutely orderly manner, in spite of those who demanded an adjournment. Abstentions had not gone beyond the usual proportions, in spite of the Leftisis’ boasts. E.A.M. officially protested against the Minister of the Interior allowing polling stations to stay open for three hours after sunset. E.A.M. described the measure as “ dragooning ” the electors to go to the polls after they were due to close.

Moscow Radio says the efforts of reactionaries were directed toward compelling voters in the Greek elections to participate by means of blackmail and threats. Employees of the Government and private enterprise were threatened with dismissal if they refused to participate in the voting. The elections were thus not being held under conditions guranteeing a free expression of the people’s will. The chief doubt in the minds of independent observers about the fairness of the Greek election concerns the voting, says Reuter’s Athens correspondent. It was decided at the last moment not to use indelible stain to prevent voters from voting more than once. The Daily Mail correspondent, however, is well satisfied that stamping and signing each voters’ book is an adequate safeguard. Correspondents who visited several polling booths were satisfied with the procedure. The voter’s identity card was first checked, then the name was checked by the register, and the voting book was stamped and signed. The voter then took all the ballot papers behind a curtain and selected the one he wanted. He sealed it in an envelope and dropped it into a sealed box.

A dilemma for some voters, however, was shown by a manual worker in Piraeus, who said he had two parttime jobs and would undoubtedly lose one of them to-morrow. Both his employers had demanded to see his voting book after the poll. One threatened to sack him if the book was marked as if he had voted, and the --other threatened to do so if he did not vote. The Allied mission which observed the election announced that its report would not be completed until April 10, when it would be cabled to London, Paris and Washington for simultaneous release. Judgment by the mission on whether the elections were fair and free can only be reached after reports have been received from the observer teams throughout Greece. Any conjecture by the mission before complete information is available would be premature. The South Salonika Ministry of Public Order announced that six policemen are believed to be buried under the debris of a police station in Litohoro. in addition to 10 known to have been killed and four others wounded. Police reinforcements are pursuing the attackers in 9 wooded area at the foot of Mount Olympus.