The members of the plot to buy votes by mail dismantled by the Civil Guard in Mojácar (Almería) paid 100 euros for each postal vote, according to the indications with which the investigators work. The peculiarity of the modus operandi of this network, unlike the organization dismantled in Melilla, is that the payment materialized when the citizen of Mojácar left the Post Office after casting his vote, as explained to La Vanguardia by sources from the Institute Armed, from where they place the two detainees from the PSOE municipal list at the top of the network.
The origin of the investigation is in the complaint of a resident of Mojácar to whom the organization offered 100 euros in exchange for his vote by mail. Investigators from the Central Operative Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard had been collecting information for days until yesterday, one day after the deadline for voting by mail, the operation exploded. At 07:00 in the morning the operation began on nine people investigated. Seven of them, including number two and number five on the socialist list, were arrested.
At the bottom rung of the organization's pyramid are three citizens of Colombian, Paraguayan and Ecuadorian origin. These were allegedly in charge of recruiting, among people close to them, the people to whom they offer monetary compensation in exchange for the vote, according to the same sources. His targets were neighbors with economic needs and little interest in politics.
These recruited neighbors were promised that a member of the organization would deliver the agreed 100 euros when they left the Post Office after casting their vote with the ballot indicated by the plot. The investigators, for the moment, do not know the scope that the alleged fraud could have had. They hope that through the statements and the seized material the impact can be elucidated.
This modus operandi is different from the one used by the network close to the Coalition for Melilla in the autonomous city, since there are indications that the money was delivered to the citizens after they requested the vote through the Post Office and received the documentation. That is to say, the initial intention of the members of this dismantled organization was to execute the vote themselves. All this, of course, before the Zone Electoral Board agreed in an unprecedented resolution the obligation to show the DNI when delivering the vote at the Post Office.
The UCO agents who carried out the searches yesterday found numerous documents in the homes of the detainees, including receipts for voting by mail; that would reinforce the thesis that fraudulent ballots have been executed, and copies of the electoral census, as detailed by sources close to the cause that remains under summary secrecy. They have also found envelopes with ballots.
In Mojácar, with a little more than 7,500 inhabitants, the Popular Party governs with an absolute majority, after in the last municipal elections of 2019 it obtained eight of the 13 councilors that the City Council has. 1,692 votes earned him to achieve 57.1% of the vote. While the PSOE had to settle for five councilors after achieving 1,145 votes. Councilors are fighting for handfuls of votes.
The UCO places the two detainees on the PSOE list at the top of the network. Francisco Bartolomé Flores, who was suspended from militancy yesterday by Ferra after finding out about the Civil Guard operation, and Cristobal Vizcaíno González, who occupies the number five position of the candidacy as an independent. The latter, not having a socialist card, will be asked to resign if he manages to be elected. The other investigated also pivot in the socialist orbit.
