On June 6, more than 1,000 voters in a commune on the outskirts of Hanoi had to go to the polls again amid the COVID-19 pandemic because the chairman of the People’s Council of this commune committed election fraud.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hung, the chairman of the Commune People’s Council cum Chairman of the Election Committee of Trang Viet Commune, Me Linh District, Hanoi, took 75 votes to vote for himself, resulting in more than 1,000 voters in a voting group in the commune must conduct re-election the People’s Council, according to Vietnam’s state-controlled media.
“The re-election of the election point No. 4 in Trang Viet commune was due to the election fraud committed by
Nguyen Xuan Hung, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the Commune People’s Council, Chairman of the Election Committee of Trang Viet Commune, who is also a candidate for the Commune People’s Council,” reported VNExpress.
VTV said: “Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hung brought the above votes to his home and crossed out the names of other candidates, leaving only his name on the ballot paper, and then asked someone to vote for him.”
This fraud caused Mr. Hung and Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoan, the leader of the Election Team of constituency 4, to be expelled from the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, VTV reported.
Voter ballots are seen from the May 23 election in Vietnam
From Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh, who is interested in the political situation in Vietnam, commented to VOA about the fact that more than a thousand people have to go to the polls to vote again while the COVID-19 epidemic is spreading:
“The monitoring of the election is not very close, so this fraud is allowed so that people have to vote again in this stressful epidemic situation that makes people very miserable.
Personally, those who cheated the election are to blame. Voting once during the COVID season is already stressful, now COVID has increased, and voting again is condemnable!” Mr. Binh added.
People nationwide went to elect deputies to the 15th National Assembly and People’s Councils at all levels on May 23, 2021.
Also from Hanoi, Dr. Nguyen Quang A told VOA that in Vietnam there is a mechanism in the press and people to monitor the election, but they “don’t dare“, “have no motivation” and also “no one sees any benefit from such surveillance.”
Dr. Nguyen Quang A says:
“It is common for one person to vote for several people, for the whole family, or fraud in the counting of votes, but the question is, is it detected? There is a mechanism to prevent that, but since there are no free candidates, no one is motivated to check this. Reporters also do not dare to follow this because they would risk their jobs.”
“In the case of this commune, with more than 1,000 voters re-voting, I don’t know why? Maybe due to the leak of information that the president brought 75 votes home and someone denounced it, it was already broken, so they had to discipline him and expel him from the Party,” said Dr. Nguyen Quang A.
On June 7, VOV radio said that the case of election fraud in Trang Viet commune could be criminally handled.
Vietnam’s state-controlled media reported that on the morning of June 6, Lieutenant General Nguyen Hai Trung, Director of Hanoi Police Department, was present at the 4th constituency of Trang Viet commune to supervise the re-election.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
