Some 10,000 residents of Manilva municipality who are registered on the padrón (municipal registration) and aged over 16 have been called to the ballot box to decide the future of the town’s fairs and festivals. Three ballot boxes were set up in the three population centres: Castillo de la Duquesa, the multipurpose building in Sabinillas and the council chamber in Manilva. They were open from 12:00 until 20:00, and just over 6% of residents turned out, with a total of 628 votes. Of these, 422 votes (67.2%) went to the option of one big fair in August and 206 votes (32.8%) were for keeping all three fairs.
As announced by the Town Hall, the results will be respected, so there will be only one fair in August, along with the three popular verbenas (open-air street parties) in each population centre.
Despite the fine weather today, which invited people to go out, turnout was very low compared with the last popular poll held on the same subject in 2017, when around 1,200 people voted and produced a completely different result from today’s, with the three fairs winning with 70% of the votes.
The day passed off without incident, and the councillors from «Con Andalucía Izquierda Unida», who promoted this popular poll, were present at the count. No member of the Partido Popular, their current government partners, was present at the event.
