Police investigation launched into suspected election fraud in Stockholm

On Thursday, the Electoral Commission's office submitted a report of electoral fraud following information published in an editorial in SvD.

The police have now started a preliminary investigation into the case.

- We have started a preliminary investigation into improper actions during voting and improper taking of rewards during voting, says police spokesperson Nadya Norton.

The Electoral Board does not share the picture of electoral fraud

The claims in SvD's editorial are largely directed at the personal election campaign for the Left Party member of parliament Ilyas Hassan, who is from Husby in Järva.

The electoral board's head of office in Stockholm, Eva Debels, says that during the early voting they did not receive any information from Järva that was worth a police report. On the other hand, things that were not appropriate, including cross-marked ballot papers. The fact that they report to the police, she says, is because the electoral committee cannot investigate electoral fraud, but the police must do that.

It is not illegal to bring ballots or crossed-off ballots. But the Electoral Office prefers that the notes be kept under their supervision.

V refutes: "Is there an agenda"

The left-wing party in Stockholm says that it is good that ambiguities are investigated, but believes that the police report is based on anonymous sources and emphasizes that it is not directed at Illya Hassan.

- It is unreasonable that he is now singled out in the media. There is an agenda from the right, where the Sweden Democrats and the Moderates call citizens' democratic participation clan voting and call them voting cattle, says August Flensburg, district chairman of the Left Party in Stockholm.

Four other preliminary investigations established

In addition to the case of the suspected electoral fraud in Järva reported by the city of Stockholm, four other preliminary investigations into electoral fraud have also been established in the Stockholm area.

According to police spokesperson Nadya Norton, these four other cases must have occurred in the municipalities of Nacka, Täby, Sigtuna and Sundbyberg.

These preliminary investigations relate to the criminal classifications of acting improperly when voting as well as receiving an improper reward when voting and must all have taken place between the end of August and September.