The Government ensures "total transparency and maximum guarantee" on 28-M after the controversy over vote buying

Less than 24 hours before the polling stations open, and with a campaign closure marked by the controversy over the alleged purchase of votes in different parts of the country, the Executive guarantees the “total transparency, neutrality and normality” of the regional elections and municipal this Sunday. This was stated this Saturday by Francesc Vallès, Secretary of State for Communication, in the usual appearance before the media of the day of reflection from the National Center for Data Dissemination.

Both Vallès and the Undersecretary of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, called for calm after the news coming from points such as Melilla, Mojácar (Almería) or Albudeite (Murcia), where the Justice is investigating alleged vote-buying schemes for this 28-M.

In this sense, the Secretary of State for Communication called for security and stressed the security enjoyed by electoral processes in Spain, with one of the “safest and most guaranteed systems in the world”. “Citizens tomorrow can go to vote with absolute peace of mind,” he specified.

The scandal over the vote-buying network in Melilla, which directly affects the leadership of the Coalition for Melilla (CpM), has forced the annulment of more than half of the votes cast by mail and to shield the autonomous city this Sunday. Some 100,000 agents from different forces will form part of the largest security device designed to ensure an electoral process in the history of our country, of which 594 will do so in Melilla, 7% more than in the previous appointment with the polls.

Vallès denied that the events that occurred in the autonomous city threaten to reduce participation. Thus, he considered that citizens throughout Spain “will participate as they always have”, beyond the different sources of irregularities, which also affect regional PSOE officials.

This is the case of Mojácar, in Almería, where the investigations by the Civil Guard led to the arrest of two socialist candidates, accused of orchestrating a corrupt network of will-buying. Vallès remarked that the organizations that ensure the security of the process and of the citizenry “identify, detect and repair possible irregularities” that may occur, as in the aforementioned cases.

The National Data Dissemination Center has been installed, as usual, in the Ifema fairgrounds, in Madrid, and will organize and distribute the information on the municipal elections, the island councils of the Canary Islands and also the elections to the assemblies of Ceuta and Melilla. The autonomies will be in charge of breaking down the electoral data at the regional level.

In addition to Vallès and Goicoechea, this Saturday the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, as well as the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, visited the center.

four appearances

The Government will offer the first participation data in the municipal elections this Sunday, May 28 at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., while it will not be until 10:30 p.m. when it appears to report the provisional results, which can be followed on real time from 9:00 p.m. through a web page and a mobile application, according to Europa Press. You will also be able to follow the vote count in detail from that time on at ELMUNDO.es.

There will be up to four appearances by the Government to detail the participation figures and the provisional results of the voting. Specifically, the first one will take place at 10:30 am with the start of the day and the constitution of the tables, to which a total of 35.5 million citizens are called.

At 2:30 p.m. they will appear again to offer the first participation figures. In the afternoon, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a new appearance to report participation until 6:00 p.m.

At around 10:30 p.m., the Minister for Territorial Policy and Government Spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, are expected to appear to offer the provisional results.

The progress of participation and the provisional count can be consulted in real time through the website https://resultados.locales2023.es, as well as in the application for mobile devices 28M Local Elections 2023, downloadable in the markets of the platforms Android and iOS.

During election day, a total of 98,991 members of the State Security Forces and Corps will work to guarantee that the day passes normally in the polling stations throughout Spain, “the largest security device in the history” of an election, the of 28-M this Sunday, which in the case of Melilla has 594 agents, double the number of troops deployed in Ceuta.