864.00/8–1447: Telegram
The Minister in Hungary (Chapin) to the Secretary of State
1386. With campaign for Hungarian National elections on August 31 now under way, methods by which Communist Party seeks to gain full control of Hungarian political life become increasingly evident. One, the wholesale disfranchisement of non-Marxist voters on flimsy, illegal and often ridiculous pretexts obvious to entire population of Hungary. The other, the control exerted by Communist Party on its partners in the coalition as well as on some of the so-called opposition parties is just as real and dangerous but less evident to average voter.
The wholesale disfranchisement of voters has now assumed such proportions that it seems more than probable that the Hungarian elections will be a grim farce. It is impossible to tell exactly how many voters will be disfranchised but lowest estimate is 300,000 and highest and from all reports the most credible is over a million. Although disqualification of voters is officially carried out by registration committees (Összeiró Bizottságok) of which 90% are headed by members of Communist Party, in reality disqualification is made by so-called house chiefs (Hazmegbizottak) and block chiefs installed by Communists in Hungary in accordance with Soviet system. A voter is [Page 357] disqualified by simple process of house chief making a charge against the person on the registration blank (Összeiró IV). These charges are usually appallingly frivolous and the committees do not even take trouble to make their excuses feasible. For example, a large number of Jews have been disqualified on the basis that they have been members of Nazi organizations, old women have been charged with being prostitutes, women have been disqualified on grounds that they were members of the gendarmerie, thousands have been classified as mentally deranged, working people have been charged with having owned large estates and when no other reason could be given committees have disqualified voters on basis of non-existent provisions in electoral law. It is an interesting coincidence that the overwhelming majority of disfranchised voters are not distinguished for pro-Communist sympathies.
Appeals against disfranchisement are theoretically possible but are in practice of no avail, as burden of proof of right to vote rests upon the citizen and it is therefore necessary for him to produce official documents proving the charges against him to be untrue. Such documents can be obtained only through expenditure of time and money and through the assistance of influential persons and must then be delivered to State Defense Department of Police which is controlled by the Communist Party. The Communist Minister of Interior Mr. Rajk has issued a directive ordering authorities to correct mistakes made in disqualification of voters, directing that appeals must be made to special committees within 8 days. The inefficacy of this directive is demonstrated by the obvious impossibility for the committees of appeal to investigate hundreds of thousands of cases within 8 days, even should disfranchised voters be able to obtain official documents disproving charges against them.
Communist pressure upon disfranchised voters is further illustrated by fact that many citizens who have been disfranchised have received cards from Communist Party inviting them to visit local Communist headquarters if they wish to have charges withdrawn.
The more subtle and less evident strategy of Communist Party is aimed at insuring their control of new Parliament regardless of the results of the balloting. By means of an inter-party agreement, reluctantly accepted under Communist pressure, Communists in effect have power to supervise the lists of candidates prepared by other parties in coalition. In practice this means that Communist Party decides who shall and who shall not be a candidate on slates of other coalition parties. Furthermore Communists through the Left Wing leaders of Smallholders Party successfully control that majority party. Rank and file of the Smallholders and Social Democratic Parties is in bitter [Page 358] opposition to policies of their own leaders but has no voice in the party-councils. No one suspected of anti-Communist convictions has a chance of becoming a party candidate. Thus those Smallholder deputies numbering 127 who belonged to Committee for Defense of Constitution have no possibility of being placed on their own party slate. Smallholders Party had been slow to announce its slate due to this necessity of finding candidates who are both satisfactory to Communist Party and who will be accepted as candidates by local party organizations of the several constituencies. Fourth party of coalition, smaller Peasant Party has evolved as a Communist Front Agrarian Party.
With respect to opposition parties it is clear that Communist Party has gone out of its way to prevent a united opposition by approving formation of number of new parties and their electoral activities, so long as they show no signs of uniting all Hungarian opposition elements. Furthermore some of these parties have shown evidence of adopting a policy of so-called “loyal opposition”.
Average Hungarian citizen is therefore discouraged by grave dilemma in which he is placed. In first place he is confronted with threat of unjust and illegal disfranchisement. If he is fortunate enough to retain his right to vote, he must choose between voting for a coalition party subservient to Communist domination or for a small opposition party outside administration. If he makes latter choice he may well feel that he is serving purposes of Communist Party by voting for an already divided and atomized opposition. Furthermore in voting for an opposition party which in future might demonstrate sufficient strength to incur enmity of administration, he runs risk of possible reprisals similar to those experienced by adherents of recently disbanded Freedom Party (Szabadság Party); lastly he is faced with problem of distinguishing between those opposition parties which genuinely represent Hungarian aims and ideals, those which serve merely as convenient camouflages for Communists.