Police are investigating allegations that foreign-background residents were pressured to vote for certain candidates during the municipal election in Turku, Finland.
The Southwest Finland Police Department stated that it had been tipped off to the potential election fraud and that residents from foreign backgrounds had been pressured to vote for three candidates during municipal elections.
The foreign-background residents were reportedly pressured to vote a certain way during advanced polling, which is underway ahead of the election day on June 13th, broadcaster YLE reports.
While Finnish media have claimed that people of foreign backgrounds were pressured to vote for certain candidates, they have not stated who the candidates are or who was applying pressure on voters to vote for them. However, YLE said that election officials themselves have not been suspected of any crimes.
There have been reports of migrant-background people being encouraged to vote for certain parties or candidates in other European countries in recent years.
In 2018 in Milan, Italy, members of the leftist Democratic Party (PD) held a voting class for Muslims at a local Islamic centre. The class taught Muslim worshippers how to vote but used ballots where the only choice was the PD.
Just days before, the Mosque of Segrate in Milan put out a bulletin calling on congregants to vote for the PD and the party’s allies because of their favourable view on birthright citizenship. Currently, a child in Italy can only be granted Italian citizenship if at least one of their parents is a citizen, in line with the principle of Jus sanguinis, or right by blood, with some exceptions.
In Sweden, an investigation was launched in 2018 after claims that an imam had offered 3,000 votes to a political party in exchange for building permits.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.