4 ms·

Every election in Latvia if you check the Russian oriented ballots you will find some familiar last names in unexpected fringe parties. Unused ballots are good

by sireat 5y ago

Every election in Latvia if you check the Russian oriented ballots you will find some familiar last names in unexpected fringe parties. Unused ballots are good for bathroom reading :) When I say fringe these parties get less than 1% and are rarely in the news. So the tactic is not working. Here is just one example from 2010 elections. https://www.cvk.lv/cgi-bin/wdbcgiw/base/komisijas2010.CVKAND10.kandid2?nr1=2 https://www.cvk.lv/cgi-bin/wdbcgiw/base/komisijas2010.CVKAND... Obviously that guy is not the Russian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Galkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Galkin It would be an interesting analysis to see if notable names appear more often as candidates and do they draw more plus(FOR) signs than regular candidates.

jgilias 5y ago
Is there any indication that 'Maksims Galkins' has changed his name?
- sireat 5y ago
  Unlikely it is not as bad as St Peterburg but again it is still a misleading practice. These names are put in a middle of the list (meaning they have low priority for actual parliament seats). If you are an uneducated and undecided voter, you see someone popular and you see, wow this person is in this party, let's take a flyer on this party.
ABoredBirb 5y ago
That's not the same thing at all. That is just someone with the same name as some celeb. The celeb is not running in the elections. What is discussed in the article are fake candidates with the same (changed) name (and appearance) as an actual candidate, in order to confuse voters and leech votes away from the actual candidate.
- sireat 5y ago
  Agreed the practice is not as despicable as the St. Petersburg case. (amazing city btw) Still the question is would this person be running in the election were their name not a match or similar to someone publicly known. These names usually appear in the middle of the list - so are unlikely to be major players themselves. I looked through our local candidate lists and found more suspicious cases. There are instances of not complete matches but things like a security guard from a populist party with the same uncommon last name as the prime minister at a time. Could be pure coincidence but I doubt it.

by sireat 5y ago

jgilias 5y ago

Is there any indication that 'Maksims Galkins' has changed his name?

sireat 5y ago
Unlikely it is not as bad as St Peterburg but again it is still a misleading practice. These names are put in a middle of the list (meaning they have low priority for actual parliament seats). If you are an uneducated and undecided voter, you see someone popular and you see, wow this person is in this party, let's take a flyer on this party.

ABoredBirb 5y ago

That's not the same thing at all. That is just someone with the same name as some celeb. The celeb is not running in the elections. What is discussed in the article are fake candidates with the same (changed) name (and appearance) as an actual candidate, in order to confuse voters and leech votes away from the actual candidate.

sireat 5y ago
Agreed the practice is not as despicable as the St. Petersburg case. (amazing city btw) Still the question is would this person be running in the election were their name not a match or similar to someone publicly known. These names usually appear in the middle of the list - so are unlikely to be major players themselves. I looked through our local candidate lists and found more suspicious cases. There are instances of not complete matches but things like a security guard from a populist party with the same uncommon last name as the prime minister at a time. Could be pure coincidence but I doubt it.