Electoral corruption: illegal voter bribery technologies

Abstract

Based on the methodology of documentary review of scientific sources, materials of public organizations, law enforcement and judicial practice of investigating cases of voter bribery, the most widespread technologies of electoral corruption in Ukraine and other countries were revealed and investigated in the article. Peculiarities of direct and indirect voter bribery have been discovered. The most widespread forms (technologies) of election-related bribery have been identified: "carousel", "bargaining", "conditioning", "bus", "dumping", "election network technology". It has been established that the most insecure technology that poses a serious threat to the smooth conduct of elections is the creation of "election networks", which can significantly influence and undermine the credibility of the will of citizens. It is concluded that the characteristics of such a criminal network are: massive character involving a wide range of participants with different roles; significant territorial distribution; realization of criminal intent through clearly planned step-by-step activities within a temporary criminal group. Based on the results of the research, it has been established that in Ukraine the "carousel" technology has been widely used.