The National Police is carrying out a police operation in Melilla for which several searches and arrests are being carried out in the framework of the judicial investigation for the alleged purchase of votes by mail for the 28-M. At the moment, there are nine people arrested, but more arrests are not ruled out throughout the day.
According to sources from the investigation to La Vanguardia, the nine arrested —six this morning and three yesterday— for the moment are people who occupy the lowest echelons of the corrupt plot. Some of them with a record for drug trafficking, who would have been in charge of attracting citizens to buy the vote. His testimony is expected to be essential to elucidate the political scope of the electoral fraud attempt that flies over the autonomous city.
The avalanche of requests to vote by mail —which has reached 20% of the census, while the national average is 3%— raised all suspicions of attempted electoral fraud. Something that was not a new practice in the autonomous city, which already has political charges convicted for it.
Under the coordination of the Investigating Court Number 2 of Melilla —which keeps the case under summary secrecy—, the National Police found indications that behind the massive requests there is a corrupt plot that would have offered around 100 euros in exchange for each vote for the next elections of 28-M.
According to sources of the investigation, the plot would reach people close to the Coalition for Melilla, whose leader, Mustafá Aberchán, was convicted of buying votes by mail for the 2008 Senate elections. The same sources indicate that there are indications —but ” less conclusive”—that the network could reach other political parties.
The Police suspect that the ringleaders of this plot commissioned people with criminal records to recruit vulnerable people in marginal environments to request a vote by mail in exchange for financial consideration. The first arrests that have been carried out this Tuesday would correspond to those recruiters of families from whom they buy their votes. In the same operation ten registrations have been carried out.
Within the framework of this investigation, the Superior Police Headquarters is carrying out several searches and arrests in various parts of the city in which the DNI will be required —in an unprecedented decision of the Electoral Board— to all citizens who intend to deposit your ballot at a Post Office.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, until yesterday the Post Office had validated 11% of the 11,707 applications for voting by mail in Melilla. The procedure is open until the 25th, three days before election day, so the figure of 1,302 cast votes can still be updated upwards.
