Twenty votes bought to win in a town in Murcia with the head of PSOE Training in the back room
The vote-buying plot dismantled yesterday by the Civil Guard in Albudeite (Murcia) accurately measured the votes needed to change the color of the Mayor's Office in next Sunday's elections. According to what EL MUNDO has learned, the researchers have counted 20 altered votes in favor of the PSOE in a municipality in which in the previous electoral elections, the Socialists were the most voted force by a difference of 15 votes with respect to the PP, which ended up governing
by a pact with
citizens
.
The device resulted in 15 people implicated, 13 arrested. All of them were released. Among those arrested is number 19 of the PSOE candidacy for the Murcia Parliament, headed by
Jose Velez
. Is about
Hector Martinez
who, in addition, is a member of the regional Executive of the party as secretary of Training and attached to Education, Vocational Training and Universities. The candidate for mayor of Albudeite,
Isabel Penalver
, was also arrested as well as the person who goes on number six on her list.
The price of the votes ranged between 100 and 200 euros, sources of the investigation specify and it was offered weeks ago to people registered in the municipality. This figure is common in all networks of this nature dismantled these days by the State Security Forces and Corps to curb electoral fraud.
The investigations started by accident.. The agents of the Armed Institute were investigating a drug trafficking network with ramifications in the area.. In the wiretaps authorized by the judge directing the investigation, they located conversations that talked about buying votes, how to do it and the figures that were handled, indicate the same sources.
In the 2019 elections, the winner did so by only 15 votes
It was then that the owner of the
Court of Instruction number 1 of Mula
(Murcia) opened a separate piece for electoral crime. The modus operandi consisted of offering money to people who were in a precarious economic situation in exchange for getting the vote by mail for the Socialists. To get closer to them, the network used intermediaries, indicate the same sources. They were in charge of a first contact and, later, of delivering the agreed amounts, as stated in the investigations with which the Benemérita works.
Hector Martinez.
MS
In the 2019 elections, the Albudeite Socialists got 449 votes, while the Popular Party got 434. popular and
cs
They reached an agreement to divide the legislature into two terms and remove the PSOE from the command rod of the municipality. The disjointed plot in Albudeite is another of the hot spots at the end of the campaign.
He
First stage
was
Melilla
, where the
National Police
investigate the party
Coalition for Melilla
(CPM) and two people who were able to request the
vote for the PP
. The investigations started a month and a half ago in a very similar way to what happened in the Murcian town.
A judicial investigation for drugs exposed the network
It was also an investigation into drug trafficking that brought out the alleged vote-buying plot.. Suspicions of irregularities skyrocketed when the percentage of voters who preferred to vote by mail skyrocketed compared to the last 2019 elections, reaching 20%. The payments offered to voters for their votes were between 50 and 200 euros. In
Mojacar,
the
Central Operating Unit
of the Civil Guard (UCO) was deployed early last Wednesday to stop the
alleged robbery plot
vote-by-mail presumably led by two members of the PSOE of that municipality. Its about
number two
of the Mojácar PSOE
Francisco Bartolome Flores
, and number five,
Christopher Vizcaino
. One of them was released yesterday late afternoon after going to court. The rest of those arrested will sit before the magistrate today.
In addition, a Canary Islands court is also investigating another similar scheme in
La Gomera (Canary Islands)
La Gomera
. The investigation focuses on the processing by the
Cabildo
of La Gomera of at least twenty digital certificates for the alleged issuance from its premises of the postal vote of as many individuals. In some cases without the interested citizens being present.