Elections in Mariánské Lázně valid despite vote-buying, Plzeň Regional Court rules
The Plzeň Regional Court rejected a challenge to declare the municipal elections in Mariánské Lázně invalid, despite confirming that vote-buying had taken place.
Court confirms vote-buying, but elections in Mariánské Lázně remain valid
The Plzeň Regional Court has refused to invalidate the municipal elections in Mariánské Lázně, despite establishing that vote-buying had occurred during the voting. According to information the court published on its official notice board on Tuesday, and first reported by Aktuálně.cz, it could not be definitively proven that this conduct influenced the distribution of mandates.
The petitioner sought a declaration of the elections' invalidity, or alternatively the invalidity of voting in individual polling districts. As the main evidence, they submitted a video recording showing a woman now facing criminal prosecution urging voters to mark the Naše Česko party behind the voting screen, photograph the completed ballot, and send the image as proof. She offered money in return for completing this procedure.
In the recording, the woman spoke of rewarding approximately 25 people, arranging their transport to polling stations, and stated that a third party was financing the entire operation. The petitioner argued that such a number of influenced voters could be sufficient to change the allocation of council mandates.
Law requires direct causal connection
The court stated in its reasoning that according to electoral law, mere violation of the law or only the probability of influencing the result is insufficient to invalidate elections. It must be demonstrably proven that without the electoral irregularity, different persons or different groups would have obtained the mandates.
During police questioning, the woman testified that she gave rewards to approximately ten people and transported them to polling stations. However, based on the available evidence, it was not possible to determine beyond reasonable doubt how these voters actually marked their ballots or whether they would have participated in the election at all without the financial incentive.
Although a model calculation demonstrated the theoretical possibility of losing a mandate, mere mathematical possibility without concrete evidence of cast votes is insufficient to invalidate elections, the court established.
"Influencing voters' will through bribery is illegal. The purpose of municipal council elections is not an auction of positions in municipal self-government, but an expression of the independent will of voters in selecting candidates. The will of a corrupted voter is not independent," the court stated directly in the text of its ruling.
The court also noted that following changes to the legal framework, any payment cannot automatically be considered grounds for invalidating entire elections without assessing its actual impact on the result. When assessing vote-buying, it is necessary to distinguish between the illegality of the offer or provision of benefit itself and proof of its impact on the election outcome.
Composition of council remains unchanged
Ten groups in total ran candidates for the twenty-one-member council of Mariánské Lázně, with six of them making it into the council. The ANO movement and independent candidates obtained the most mandates — eight — the same as in the previous municipal elections. The STAN movement received six mandates, while Změna pro Mariánské Lázně with support from VOK and the ODS+KDU-ČSL coalition and the Naše Česko party each received two mandates. The association Za lepší Mariánské Lázně, which includes the Pirates, won one mandate.
The woman captured in the video recording is currently facing criminal prosecution. The court's ruling does not prejudge criminal proceedings in any way — the question of the validity of elections and the criminal responsibility of individual persons are assessed separately.
Source: Aktuálně.cz