Allegations of election-fixing fall on deaf ears

Allegations of electoral irregularities following the recent local government elections have been growing in number as former candidates unearth new facts and accuse their rivals of election-fixing. In the Mazowieckie Voivodship town of Ciechanow, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) announced that 193 ballot papers had 'disappeared' possibly giving a 42-vote victory to Civic Platform (PO) candidate Waldemar Wardzinski over leftist Marcin Styrczynski. However, apart from the missing ballots, there is no other supporting evidence for the SLD's claim as the official observer, from their coalition partner Labor Union (UP), never appeared at the voting station. The local PO members ridiculed their SLD counterparts claiming it was hard on the old comrades to get separated from their seats and added that the number of those who voted and the number of ballots issued on election day are the same, while those missing were not stamped and, therefore, invalid. If the SLD-UP claim is recognized by the court the lection in Ciechanow may have to be repeated. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A4) J.K.