Alberto Núñez Feijóo asked the postal workers yesterday, “regardless of their bosses”, “distribute all the votes before the deadline for Spaniards” to be able to vote and exercise “their constitutional rights”.
The leader of the PP, who assured that the workers do not have sufficient resources to do their job, added that he promised “that if they are not paid overtime, in the first Council of Ministers I will pay overtime to all postmen from Spain for fulfilling their duty, to all of them”, he assured.
Feijóo made these statements at an event held in Murcia, together with former president José María Aznar and the candidate to re-preside over the region, Fernando López Miras.
Hours later, Correos published a note in memory of its former president –Feijóo directed the company under the presidency of José María Aznar– who has formalized 19,400 reinforcement contracts for “the correct development of activities related to voting for mail for the general elections. He also points out that the company has budgeted “the payment of overtime to its professionals.” “Since May 30 – adds the company’s note – it has been taking and will take all the necessary measures to guarantee voting by mail”.
For days, and always from the conservative flank, the performance of Correos has been questioned before the great demand for votes caused by the fact that these elections are held during the vacation period.
When general elections were called for July 23, many citizens already had their vacations planned. The alternative is voting by mail, whose number of requests currently exceeds 2,361,982, a record.
On May 28, the municipal elections were held, in which 984,108 citizens requested to vote by mail. The figure for the 23-J general elections is, therefore, double the requests issued in the previous elections.
The 2,361,982 people who have claimed to vote by mail represent 6.3% of the total census, a figure never seen before. Regarding the last general elections –in November 2019– the increase is more than 1,364,452 applications, with a difference of more than 136%.
Today is the last day to request a vote by mail, and according to Correos reports, not even half of the votes have yet been distributed -nearly 1,400,000 are missing-, just one week before the end of the term to exercise the ballot by mail Last night, the company announced that it will open all its offices until 10:00 p.m. and also this weekend due to the massive requests to vote.
The precedent of the municipal elections of May 28, when the existence of at least two groups was discovered, one in Melilla and another in Granada that were dedicated to buying votes by mail, has become an incentive for those who encourage the theory that the company is not doing its job well.
Yesterday, the deputy of the PP Pedro Rollán alluded to “the complaints from several postal unions that the human resources are not being increased in time and in a suitable way to be able to respond to the large number of requests” for postal voting. There is no record that any union has denounced this situation, which the company flatly denies in its statement.
From the Government, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, assured that Feijóo is an “ultra dressed in lambskin” because only the ultras “are capable of questioning the system as guaranteed as the Spanish electoral system” and the vote for mail. “He is a person with whom we have to be careful because he has no limit, enough of hoaxes, lies and casting doubts on voting by mail,” added the minister.
For his part, the organization secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, accused Feijóo of elaborating “conspiracy theories”.
