By: Dr Matevž Tomšič
After elections, it is always the case that some are more satisfied with the results and others less so. But in established democracies there is a relatively high level of trust in electoral procedures, especially in the fairness of vote counting. As a result, even the losers of an election do not dispute the officially announced results. In weaker democracies, however, this is not the case. It often happens that the person whom the official results show to have lost the election refuses to accept them, claiming that there was fraud or manipulation of the actual outcome.
And often, suspicions of electoral fraud are justified. The most obvious example is the recent presidential election in Venezuela, where the authorities declared the then‑incumbent president Nicolás Maduro (who is now sitting in a U.S. prison) the winner, even though all forecasts pointed to a victory for the opposition candidate, and numerous solid pieces of evidence emerged of gross electoral fraud committed by the regime. It became clear that the election had been stolen, which is why neither the United States nor the European Union recognised Maduro as the legitimate president.
Unfortunately, Slovenia still cannot be counted among established democracies. This year’s elections made that clear. Never before have there been so many indications that something went wrong in the vote count. That is a mild description. To put it more sharply, it is quite possible that major electoral manipulations occurred.
It began with a larger number of early‑voting polling stations, which are clearly illegal because they are located outside the areas of the district electoral commissions (as explicitly required by law). The National Electoral Commission confirmed this – yet still decided that voting could take place there, claiming it would not affect the outcome of the election. Did it really not? Because these polling stations were located in Ljubljana, a stronghold of left‑leaning parties, residents of the capital who voted early were in a much better position than those from relatively distant rural areas, where voters mostly support the right. In addition, oversight of the ballot boxes at these polling stations – especially at night – was seriously inadequate. Security was reportedly provided by the security services of the Ljubljana City Municipality, which in practice meant that control was in the hands of none other than a supporter of Robert Golob and his political mentor, Zoran Janković.
And lo and behold, the early‑voting results differ significantly from those of election Sunday – naturally in favour of the left bloc. This can be explained at least partly (though certainly not entirely) by the fact that SDS leader Janez Janša urged his supporters not to vote early, which meant the party received a smaller share of votes at those polling stations. But this explanation does not apply to voting from abroad, where the discrepancies are similar or even greater. Some official results from abroad are downright unbelievable. Is it really credible that in one predominantly right‑leaning electoral district, Levica received roughly the same share of votes from abroad as SDS? Even more absurd are the figures from the polling station in the Vatican, where SDS supposedly received zero votes and the Left two (sic!).
At the same time, we hear numerous complaints from people in the diaspora (from the U.S., Canada, Argentina) that they did not receive their ballots or that they arrived too late. This understandably raises suspicions of abuse. It is entirely possible that ballots were sent abroad selectively: mainly to those who were known (or at least assumed) to vote for the left (to diplomatic missions, Brussels, and the Balkans).
Alejandro Peña Esclusa, a Venezuelan dissident who has extensively researched electoral fraud across Latin America, is convinced that this year’s elections in Slovenia were stolen. He sees many parallels in the manipulation and abuse of electoral procedures. For this reason, all such suspicions should be thoroughly investigated. At the very least, the results from the illegal polling stations should be annulled and the voting from abroad repeated.