12 votes in suspense due to a broken elevator: "Only young people can leave here"

A simple mechanical part of the elevator of a neighborhood block in Cartagena has, since last Thursday, practically confined and without the possibility of moving around the 12 elderly people who reside in it. The youngest is 82 years old and the oldest is 96.. Made up of 10 floors, the large number of stairs that stand between their houses and the street constitute a physical barrier that probably prevents them from exercising their right to vote on election day this Sunday, July 23.

The company responsible is a German multinational, which with a part of its staff on vacation has informed them that they will not solve the problem until Tuesday, so many of them will not be able to go to the polling stations.. In addition to the difficulty, and even the risk, that voting in the middle of summer in one of the hottest areas of Spain entails for older people, an added circumstance of these characteristics makes it practically impossible for them to go to vote. “I would like to go, but only young people can leave here,” says Rosa, 82, one of the affected residents from the seventh floor of this block..

“Those of us of a certain age are going to be unable to move until Tuesday,” he says, which means that, apart from the fact that they will not be able to exercise their right to vote, they are not being able to perform basic tasks such as going to the store or to the pharmacy to get their medicines.. In addition, several of them live alone and are needing the help of neighbors or relatives during these days to be able to survive since, as Rosa says, “they do not have money to go to a hotel during these days either.”

Salvador, his son, has spent the last two days trying to find a solution to the problem. Outraged by the lack of alternatives on the part of the company, he had no choice but to file a complaint in court. “It is a shame. We are talking about elderly people who do not go out, some are without air conditioning and cannot go to the pensioner's home either because they cannot go down the stairs ». In addition, as his mother recounts, he is aware that they are going to be left without voting this 23-J. “Even if it were just one person, it wouldn't be fair. If it were a local company, I could understand it, but we are talking about a multinational. What my mother and the rest of the neighbors want is to go out and vote,” he says angrily.

Another of those affected is Antonio, also from the seventh floor, and who did not want to stay on the phone for too long as he was waiting for a number to appear on television that has been enabled in the area so that older people who need it receive help on Sunday: «I will not be able to go vote. I'm 86 years old and I'm walking up the stairs. There is no right to what they are doing to us,” he told this newspaper indignantly and saddened, although he still hopes that someone will come to his home to help him go down the stairs and go vote.

Even more serious is the case of Caridad, who at 96 is the oldest person in the building, lives on the ninth floor and, as her daughter Vicenta, who is asthmatic and who has traveled these days to be with her, explains, is experiencing a very oppressive situation: “We are doing very badly” because, above all, “we are not going to be able to exercise our right to vote, and we were excited to do so. With the political situation so bad that there is, we would like to collaborate as far as possible.

Although the fact that these people will probably not be able to exercise their right to vote tomorrow due to a situation beyond their control is already serious, the fact that they have not obtained a viable alternative from the entity responsible for it further aggravates the situation in which they find themselves and increases their anger.