Displaying items by tag: electoral fraud

According to Venezuela’s government, there have been numerous conspiracies against president Nicolás Maduro in the last year. This has resulted in the arrest of over thirty individuals, including a prominent human rights lawyer and opposition campaign staff. Critics have denounced these arrests as efforts to suppress political opposition ahead of the upcoming presidential election in July. The attorney general has said the plots aimed at attacking military installations, assassinating Maduro, and destabilising the country. Maduro has also alleged that the US government is behind the plots to assassinate him. The government's crackdown extends to barring key opposition figures from running in the election, such as market advocate María Corina Machado, who remains determined to contest, hoping for international support. However, the government's lack of transparency in legal proceedings raises concerns about due process.

Narendra Modi's government has been accused by the opposition Congress party of using the tax department to financially cripple them ahead of the upcoming elections in April and May, which Modi’s BJP party are favourites to win. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi claimed a systematic effort to starve the party of funds, stating that freezing their 2.1 billion rupee (£20 million) accounts is unprecedented and undemocratic. Her son Rahul said, ‘This is not the freezing of our bank accounts. It is the freezing of Indian democracy.’ Without access to funds, the party is unable to spend money on advertisements and publicity, paying party workers, and printing campaign materials, They have also pointed out that this action has been taken at a time when it had just been revealed that the BJP had benefited hugely from the electoral bonds scheme set up in 2018, which the supreme court declared illegal in February. The BJP and tax authorities have yet to respond.