Sweden has nullified its vote on the Office Open XML standard, robbing Microsoft of a vote in favor of the standard before the ISO.

The decision comes after Microsoft was accused of stuffing the Swedish ballot box. The company had been caught sending out emails offering "marketing support" to partners that would join the local standards body and vote on the OOXML topic.

31 Aug 2007

Microsoft stressed that the email was a mistake, that the recipients had been asked to ignore the message and the Swedish Standard Institute had been notified of the "slip-up". But that didn't sound very honest coming from a convicted monopolist who used unfair bundling practices to kill Netscape.

The Swedes claim that the nullification was caused by voter fraud: one of its members allegedly casted more than one vote. But with the conspiracy machine in full motion, most critics believe that it is just a way to allow Microsoft to save face.

Dividing the world by sponsoring Microsoft's vision of unity