Greece’s ruling party fined over misuse of voter records
Data leaked from a government voter system was used to boost the election campaign of a member of the ruling New Democracy party.
ATHENS — Greece’s ruling New Democracy party was fined on Monday following a scandal that saw voter data leak from the government to party members, who misused it for electoral gain in last June’s European Parliament election.
The scandal erupted last March after the records of some 25,000 voters living abroad were leaked to then-European Parliament lawmaker Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, a member of the New Democracy party of PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The MEP used the data in her election campaign without the prior consent of the voters.
Greece’s Personal Data Protection Authority imposed a €30,000 euro penalty on the conservative party and fined its former secretary for diaspora affairs, Nikos Theodoropoulos, an additional €10,000 for leaking the voter records to Asimakopoulou. The latter fine should be paid by New Democracy as Theodoropoulos was employed by the party, the authority said.
A New Democracy official said the party would appeal the decision to Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State.
Asimakopoulou emailed Greeks living abroad on March 1, the same day a separate message from the Interior Ministry informed expats they could cast their votes by post in the next election.
Failing to explain how she got the voter contact data, Asimakopoulou — vice-chair of the European Parliament committee on international trade in the previous term — dropped out of the election later that month.
The authority discovered that a file containing data on all registered voters had found its way into the hands of the Greek EU lawmaker. The list was sent by an unknown individual to Theodoropoulos, who then forwarded it to Asimakopoulou, who in turn used it to send mass campaign emails.
The authority previously imposed a €400,000 fine on the Interior Ministry and fined Asimakopoulou €40,000 for their respective roles in violating data protection regulations. The former lawmaker appealed the fine as excessive.
The leak is also part of a criminal investigation.
The New Democracy official said the party had already made the changes suggested by the authority, and said the fine did not mean the ruling party had been directly involved in the leak, but rather that its internal policies did not comply with personal data protection laws.
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