According to the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty (SZH), foreign-backed groups and pressure organizations are trying to shake Hungarian society’s trust in the elections.
In a statement sent to MTI on Wednesday, cited by HIrado, the organization wrote that the most active participant in the disinformation campaign identified by the SZH is the newly founded De! Action Community Association. The association is working with influencers and content producers to distribute a film that makes it appear that the ruling parties are preparing to commit election fraud.
The association is recruiting “sentinels” for locations it says are at risk of election fraud, and it is building a database of applicants for this purpose, they said.
They added that De! – whose leaders are reportedly linked to the Tisza Party – is already prepared for an international presence in English and collects donations on an international online platform. This significantly facilitates the inflow of foreign funds that are difficult to control.
SZH noted that the increasing attacks against the Hungarian electoral system are part of a coordinated, foreign-funded operation to undermine public trust. Their aim is to destabilize, destroy the credibility of the Hungarian electoral system, and create the possibility of street violence, the Office of the Ombudsman said in a statement.
There is currently a sharp divergence between polls backed by the opposition and polls seen friendly towards the Hungarian government. In the last election, the polls seen as friendly to the government had a far better track record of predicting the actual results of the election.
As Remix News reported last year, as soon as Fidesz moved into the lead in Politico’s poll of polls in Hungary, Politico removed a number of polls that showed Fidesz had the lead. Notably, Politico replaced the most accurate poll of the previous election with the pollster that had the biggest miss, amounting to 20 points.
This large discrepancy in polling could spark unrest in Hungary, leading to claims of election fraud should Fidesz win.
