結果をごまかす rig

今回も、クリントンとエドワーズ両候補の私的な会話がマイクを通じて流れてしまった騒ぎを伝える記事をもとに書いてみよう。先日、doctor に「改竄する」という意味があると書いたばかりだが、それにちょっと似ているので取り上げたいのが、rig という単語である。

両候補から、「その他大勢」扱いされた候補が怒っている部分を、先日紹介した記事から拾ってみよう。

- Representative Dennis J. Kucinich accused two of the major contenders for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, of participating in a “conspiracy to rig the presidential election,” after they apparently suggested that future presidential debates should be pared down to include fewer candidates.
(NY Times)

- "This is a serious matter and I'm calling him on it," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in a telephone interview Friday. "Whispering, trying to rig an election, then denying what's going on and making excuses. It all reflects a consistent lack of integrity."
(Associated Press)

rig は、「不正をする、不正に操作をする、八百長をする」という意味で広く使えそうな単語だ。英英辞書には、次のような説明や用例が載っている。

- arrange outcome dishonestly: to affect the outcome of something by intervening dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage
- to control or manipulate (a contest, election, or the like), arranging the outcome to one's own advantage; fix

- The station had rigged gasoline prices.
- Until this year, all elections were rigged by the ruling party.

日本の「談合」を表すのによくお目にかかるのが、bid-rigging という表現だ。

- A TV personality well-know for is goofy screen roles has won a gubernatorial election in southern Japan's Miyazaki prefecture after its former governor resigned over a bid-rigging scandal.

- In its October 2001 regulatory reform recommendations to Japan, the United States called for (中略) implementing a series of measures to eliminate bid rigging, including the introduction of effective legislation to prevent bureaucrat-led bid rigging and bolstering administrative controls on bid rigging by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT).

最初の文は、そのまんま東氏の勝利を伝えるAP通信の記事。２つ目はアメリカの政府機関のもので、そのためかやたらと長い文だが、bureaucrat-led bid rigging は「官製談合」のことになる。