Postal voting has been much discussed in recent days ahead of these elections, owing to the alleged vote buying in Melilla, which has resulted in 10 arrests for a fraud affecting a third of the electorate. At first, nothing suggested there would be further cases similar to this one, whose scale is considerable. However, complaints about alleged corrupt schemes to buy votes have multiplied across various municipalities in Spain, mainly involving the country’s two major political parties: PP and PSOE. 13 people have been arrested in Albudeite (Murcia), among them the Socialist candidate; the second and fifth names on the PSOE list for Mojácar are among the seven arrested for vote buying; the PSOE has reported the PP in Villalba del Alcor (Huelva) for «fraud» in postal voting…
The reason this high level of electoral malpractice has been possible is a loophole in the electoral law: to vote by post, a national identity document (DNI) is required and must be shown on two occasions; but on the third, when the chosen ballot is sent from the post office to the polling station, nobody asks for it. In this way, anyone can deposit the vote once the previous steps have been completed. Following the scandals that have come to light, the Central Electoral Board (JEC) announced that it would also require the DNI to deposit the vote.
In Manilva, postal votes for these elections will account for 2.20%, representing 205 votes out of the 9316 people entitled to vote in the town. Given the small differences in votes between the three most-voted parties in the 2019 elections, IU (1518), Compromiso (1503) and PSOE (1371), the postal vote could be decisive in the results.
This postal vote is distributed as follows in Manilva:
Castillo de la Duquesa with 28 postal votes distributed as follows:
- Polling station 1 5 A: 1 postal vote
- Polling station 1 5 B: 10 + 2 foreign votes
- Polling station 1 7 A: 3 postal votes
- Polling station 1 7 B: 12 postal votes
Centro de Formación de Sabinillas with 4 postal votes distributed as follows:
- Polling station 1 6 A: 3 postal votes
- Polling station 1 6 B: 1 postal vote
Centro deportivo Sabinillas «Edufy» with 74 postal votes distributed as follows:
- Polling station 1 3 A: 23 postal votes + 1 foreign vote
- Polling station 1 3 B: 23 postal votes
- Polling station 1 4 U: 27 postal votes
Manilva multi-purpose hall with 99 postal votes distributed as follows:
- Polling station 1 1 A: 30 postal votes + 1 foreign vote
- Polling station 1 1 B: 37 postal votes + 1 foreign vote
- Polling station 1 2 U: 30 postal votes
