The campaign is marred by cases of alleged vote-buying

MadridIt is no longer a single isolated case in Melilla, but several specific episodes of alleged vote buying in different areas of the Spanish geography that have contaminated the final stretch of the electoral campaign. With the risk that stones could fall on their own roof, the trickle of cases has ended up leading the PP to ask for explanations from the leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, after his party has been in the worst position in the last few hours. With three days to go before the elections, up to seven new cases of alleged electoral fraud have come to light this Thursday, between judicial investigations, party complaints and notices from the Electoral Board. Certainly, they are limited to small populations and are still anecdotal if you take into account the magnitude of the entire State, although it opens the door to the story of the delegitimization of the electoral processes that the extreme right has brandished in several countries Of the world.

“We are perplexed. [Pedro Sánchez] You can’t hide. Someone who has public responsibility must speak out,” said the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, at a campaign event in Murcia. Precisely, in a municipality in this region, Albudete, a new front has emerged in the PSOE. Its candidate for mayor, Isabel de los Dolores Peñalver, has had to testify before the Civil Guard for an alleged case of vote buying. A member of the PSOE list in the regional Parliament would also be involved. Sources of Ferraz wanted to downplay the case as much as possible: they say that the investigation stems from the statement of two young men allegedly linked to drug trafficking who, when questioned by the armed institute, would have let slip that there was a plot to buy votes in the town.

On Wednesday, the Andalusian PSOE was already forced to put out a fire in Mojácar, in Almeria, and acted immediately by provisionally suspending the number 2 of the list in this locality. In Moncloa and Ferraz they do not believe that these cases will significantly harm them on Sunday, they limit them to the local area and even speak of “pure mud”. Of course, the PSOE has also wanted to act forcefully and is determined to remove from the candidatures “immediately” people who are effectively involved in irregular practices.

However, the PSOE is not the only party that has been splashed. On the island of La Gomera, alleged irregularities are being investigated by the corporation, governed by the Socialist Group of La Gomera, in relation to the management of postal voting. The PP has not escaped suspicion either: the Electoral Board has warned the candidacy of Valverde del Camino, in Huelva, to stop offering to help citizens vote by post; and the PSOE has denounced methods of the conservative formation that the PP has denied in Casares de las Hurdes (Extremadura) and Bigastro (Alicante). In Mazarrón (Murcia) an audio of a member of the PP list has been broadcast to young people in the municipality, in which he told them that if they want to avoid having to act as inspectors during election day, they should send him a photo of their ID.

Consulted by the ARA, the political scientist Lluís Orriols agrees that these are specific cases and that the neatness of the elections is not at risk, but he does bet on strengthening the secret vote. Several parties have already taken a position in favor of reforming the law so that voting by mail is more guaranteed. “Another thing is that it is used as an instrument to not accept the electoral results”, reflects Orriols, who sees it as “worrying” that in a context of such polarization there are actors who may be tempted to subscribe to strategies that The United States and Brazil have ended assaults on institutions. In the State, PP and Vox have flirted with the discourse of calling into question the company Indra -participated by the State through SEPI-, which is responsible for the transmission and management of electoral data, but not of the count

“Mud the campaign”

The campaign has been marked in its first week by the lists of EH Bildu and in the second by the alleged electoral fraud. It all started in Melilla and with the focus on the Coalition for Melilla party, but the PP has already diverted it and Feijóo has demanded that the PSOE break the coalition pact with the local formation. In a meeting this Thursday in the Entrevías district, in Madrid, Sánchez made no allusion to the controversy, and it would only be interpretable as a right-wing dart to “dirty the campaign” which he did not specify what he was referring to.

The Socialists are struggling to give due importance to various news items that have been popping up on the penultimate day of the campaign. This Thursday, not only vote-buying cases came to light. A court in Granada has implicated number 3 of the PSOE in Andalusia in a case concerning the kidnapping of a councilwoman from the municipality of Maracena, in Granada, and also the mayoress, Vanessa Martín. Her partner would have locked in the trunk of the car a councilwoman who was keeping documents related to an urban planning project on which she disagreed because there could be irregularities.

PSOE sources emphasize that the judge has decided to lift the secrecy of the summary precisely on these dates and wonder if in a state where there has been a patriotic police there can also be similar problems in the judiciary. There have been more cases about socialist positions: a Madrid judge has agreed to open an oral trial against the mayor of Galapagar and candidate for re-election, Alberto Gómez Martín, and other positions in the council for alleged workplace harassment of the general secretary of the City Council . In addition, the number 2 on the list in Santa Cruz de Tenerife has resigned due to a case of physical assault on a manager of a football club.