With one day left until the end of the period to make the postal vote effective, the Civil Guard yesterday carried out an operation against a new plot to buy votes by mail in Mojácar (Almeria) which resulted in seven arrested, among them two candidates from the PSOE list in this town of just over 7,500 inhabitants; a network that presumably has the same modus operandi as the disarticulated network in Melilla – money in exchange for votes -, despite the fact that they are not related to each other.
Sources of the investigation explained to La Vanguardia that the inquiries began after a neighbor alerted that he had been offered money for his vote by mail. According to the data handled by the Civil Guard, the network gave 100 euros to citizens who had previously been caught by three members of the organization – a Colombian, a Paraguayan and an Ecuadorian – after depositing their vote at the Post Office.
In the ten searches carried out by the central operational unit (UCO) numerous documents were found which will now begin to be analysed, cash, postal vote slips and electoral roll lists.
This new plot completely splits the socialist ranks. They were arrested number two on the municipal list, Francisco Bartolomé Flores Torres, and who occupies the fifth place, Cristóbal VizcaÃno González. From Ferraz it didn’t take long to answer. Early in the afternoon it was announced that the first, with a socialist card, would be suspended from militancy and that the second – who presents himself as an independent – would be asked to resign if elected. “Our pulse does not tremble with any illegal practice or outside of a maximum ethical height”, they assured from the PSOE.
In Mojácar, the Popular Party governs with an absolute majority after the 2019 elections, when it obtained 8 of the 13 councilors that make up the plenum with 1,692 votes, while the PSOE obtained five with 1,145 ballots.
In Melilla yesterday, the day was calmer than Tuesday, when a dozen arrests were made. The president of the autonomous city, Eduardo de Castro, dismissed the councilor for Districts, Youth and Citizen Participation, Mohamed Ahmed al-Lal (Coalition for Melilla).
De Castro, who has governed since 2019 after being expelled from Ciutadans and thanks to the votes of the PSOE and Coalition for Melilla, expressed on Twitter that he is “very concerned about the events of the last few hours (…). My duty is to preserve the rule of law and the interests of Melilla”.
At the judicial level, the investigation is progressing while waiting for the investigator of the case to take a statement from the detainees. On the one hand, it focuses on pointing upwards to see the scope of the plot, and, on the other, it is pulling the strings to find out where the funds – estimated at one million euros – came from to pay for the 10,000 votes the network was able to buy.
Police sources insist that at the moment there is no indication in any part of the case that Morocco is involved, as has been hinted at by the opposition for days. The researchers are leaning towards the hypothesis that the money could come from bribes.
