[2014-04-18] The New Indian Express: Bitcoins Being Used to Bribe Voters?

[bryant.coleman]

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/Bitcoins-Being-Used-to-Bribe-Voters/2014/04/18/article2174811.ece

K Ramasubramanian, who contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Coimbatore, has written a letter to CEC V S Sampath and Tamil Nadu CEO Praveen Kumar accusing two upwardly mobile candidates contesting the present elections from two different constituencies under two different parties of ‘collecting the mobile numbers and email addresses of several young voters promising them to transfer sizeable amount of “bitcoins” to their accounts if they promise to vote in favour of these two candidates in the two respective Lok Sabha constituencies.

Unbelievable... Bitcoins used to bribe voters.... and that too in India!

[sgk]

Hahaha..  I would love to get some Bitcoins from them, after they robbed us of all our hard-earned money and spent them all on scandals.
Whom should I send my wallet address? 

[bryant.coleman]

Hahaha..  I would love to get some Bitcoins from them, after they robbed us of all our hard-earned money and spent them all on scandals.
Whom should I send my wallet address? 

Are you from India? I think you will find the necessary information in this forum itself. I've heard that some of the Indian political parties are planning to open an official BTC-for-vote thread very soon. But you need to bargain on your own. I am not from India, so I can't help. Sorry for that. 

[teukon]

Oh what fun!

I think it's wrong to sell one's vote (voting a certain way to receive money) but am interested to see how this plays out.

[bryant.coleman]

Oh what fun!

I think it's wrong to sell one's vote (voting a certain way to receive money) but am interested to see how this plays out.

Not only the voters. In India sometimes the minor political parties also indulge in vote selling. In a  constituency where the winning margin is 1% or 2%,   minor parties having 3% or 4% of the vote can sell their votes for hundreds of thousands of $$$.

[teukon]

Oh what fun!

I think it's wrong to sell one's vote (voting a certain way to receive money) but am interested to see how this plays out.

Not only the voters. In India sometimes the minor political parties also indulge in vote selling. In a  constituency where the winning margin is 1% or 2%,   minor parties having 3% or 4% of the vote can sell their votes for hundreds of thousands of $$$.

Cool!  I wonder whether or not having a functioning market for votes improves the situation over there.

[odolvlobo]

What fun the press will have with this! I can see it now ...

Bitcoin, the mysterious virtual currency used for drug trafficking and gun smuggling is now being used to support vote fraud.

[bryant.coleman]

Cool!  I wonder whether or not having a functioning market for votes improves the situation over there.

I don't think that there is a market like that right now, but if you want you can work out one. India is the land of elections. There are national elections, state elections and local elections. So these markets can come in handy. And if Bitcoins are used in the elections, everyone here will benefit from it as well.