The Police detain the 'number 3' of the Coalition for Melilla and the son-in-law of the party leader for voting by mail
The National Police has been deployed in Melilla early in the morning to carry out ten searches and arrest ten people for their relationship with the alleged plot of theft of votes by mail that is being investigated by a court. Among the people arrested is the counselor of the Coalition for Melilla (CPM) and number three of the party, Mohamed Ahmed Al Lal, according to advances to El MUNDO.
The deputy of the Melilla Assembly and councilor for District and Citizen Participation has been arrested at mid-morning today. The agents have also registered a location linked to CPM, they confirm from the investigation. In addition, Abdel-ilah Nourdine Ahmed, son-in-law of Mustafa Aberchán, the leader of CPM, has also been arrested.. Both have already been released after giving a statement.
The investigations are also focused on determining whether the network could have tried to bribe Post Office officials to turn a blind eye to the fraudulent issuance of these ballots.. Specifically, the agents are investigating whether an attempt was made to buy Post Office staff so that they could take these votes from Melilla for next Sunday's elections and then distribute them to other offices in the north of Spain, as announced by the Ser, and from there to polling stations.
Police search at the work center of the audiovisual communication team of Coalición Por Melilla. . Sanchez EFE
In addition, police sources have explained to this medium that it is being investigated whether some members of the network could have allegedly tested citizens residing in Barcelona and its surroundings to also buy their vote.. Central units of the Police have traveled to the community to act under court order in an operation that is still secret.
For the moment, the identity of the rest of those arrested is unknown, although sources of the investigation point out to this newspaper that they are the people who would be in the lower echelons of the alleged network investigated by the court and by the Police. The device will extend for a good part of the day and the cause remains secret.
The agents have intervened documents and different sums of money, specify the same sources. Those arrested were in charge of recruiting disadvantaged families in the city to induce their members to sell their vote for amounts between 50 and 200 euros.
The first arrests occurred on Tuesday night.. Three were arrested. Throughout this morning, the Police have arrested three other people, specify the same sources. For the operation, the Special Security Operations Group (GOES) of Malaga, the elite body of the Police for this type of affairs, has been deployed.
troubled campaign
The autonomous city does not remember a pre-campaign and an electoral campaign as convulsed as the current one. Although Melilla has chronicled and internalized the purchase of votes by mail as a recurring problem, on this occasion all previous circumstances were exceeded in severity. So much so that the alleged plot to buy the vote by mail has led to the deployment of a strong police force to control Melilla by land, sea and air in order to prevent the ballots from reaching the Peninsula clandestinely and thus materializing. the illegal vote.
As EL MUNDO has published, the network exceeds twenty people investigated. The investigation by the National Police and a court in Melilla focuses on people related to the Coalición Por Melilla (CPM) and “another political party”, the same sources specify.. Traditionally, the price of votes was around 50 euros, but, in this campaign, they warn, hitherto unknown heights have been reached.
The data, in this campaign, is alarming since the percentage of suffrage by mail has reached almost 20% of the census, 11,002 votes. This figure affects almost a third of the seats that must be distributed in the Assembly of 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.
The Investigating Court number 2 of Melilla keeps the proceedings open for a crime of electoral fraud and the process is under summary secrecy. The two main political parties in the Assembly, PP and CPM, have accused each other of being behind the alleged irregularities and the theft of electoral documentation from Post Office workers, which prompted the Security Forces to carry out escort work.
Antonio and the 5 postmen with votes by mail assaulted in Melilla by hooded men
Agents of the Civil Guard guard the port, the airport and the border crossing of Melilla to prevent the escape with bags of ballots and, later, they arrive on the Peninsula where there is no control at the Post Offices to deliver the envelopes. Members of the National Police also monitor these centers in the autonomous city and escort the postmen in delivering ballots to citizens who want to complete the process legally.. The network investigated counts up to six assaults on these professionals.
The controversy over adulterated suffrage had its highest expression with a Supreme Court ruling confirming, in 2021, the two-year prison sentence of the former president of Melilla and leader of the Coalition for Melilla (CPM), Mustafa Aberchán, and the former general secretary of the PSOE of Melilla, Dionisio Muñoz Pérez, for the alleged purchase of votes cast by mail in the 2008 Senate elections.
The Criminal Chamber ratified the sentence handed down in 2018 by the Malaga Court, which attributed two electoral crimes and one of falsehood to both regional leaders.