HUNGARIAN ELECTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26543, 19 August 1947, Page 5

HUNGARIAN ELECTIONS

VOTERS EXCLUDED FROM ROLL. INVESTIGATION OF REPORTS ORDERED Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 17. The British Foreign Office has issued a statement that the Government had received disquieting reports from Budapest about preparations for the elections on August 31. The reports suggested that under the new electoral law enacted in July, an electoral register had been compiled which excluded large numbers of the population for no good reason. The statement added that the electoral law provided for the disfranchisement of such persons as the German minority awaiting repatriation to Germany, war criminals and mental defectives, but when the electoral lists were published on August 11 it was clear that a large number of individuals had been disfranchised for reasons which hardly carried credence. The statement quoted a report that in one block of workers’ flats 52 occupants—over half the residents — had been excluded as “leading members of Fascist organisations.” In three other large apartment buildings in Budapest no one person was granted voting rights. There were also reports that Jews and others who were in German internment camps had been classified as Nazis, and there were cases of men' of academic distinction being excluded on grounds such as mental incapacity. It seems only too clear that the effect of the present register is to disfranchise at least 20 per cent, of potential electors.” The statement added that Britain had been consulting the United States, and the British and United States representatives in Budapest had been instructed to request a joint interview with the Prime Minister to seek a reassurance about these reports. They were instructed to point out to him that under the peace treaty Hungary had agreed to ensure for all persons the enjoyment of human rights and the fundamental freedoms, including freedom of political opinion, and also to urge him to take steps to ensure that the decisions of the electoral committees on voting rights are thoroughly and fairly reviewed.