The National Police is investigating "dozens" of suspects for their alleged involvement in postal vote capture networks in Melilla, according to sources in the Ministry of the Interior. The investigators focus on members of the local party Coalition for Melilla, but also on "other parties" for which the indications are less conclusive. The Court of Instruction Number 2 of Melilla assumed the preliminary proceedings of the case at the request of the National Police.

Identifications of suspects have taken place in the autonomous city in recent days. One of those arrested by the agents carried 1,395 euros in cash. The zone electoral board (JEZ) agreed on Wednesday to require the DNI to anyone who was going to deliver the vote by mail, in person and individually. A measure that was adopted at the request of the magistrate of the Court of Instruction Number 2 of Melilla, which maintains the process of the alleged electoral fraud under summary secrecy. This Friday, in addition, the JEZ rejected that the votes are deposited in a separate ballot box on election day, as requested by the PSOE. In addition, it validates the 761 envelopes delivered to Correos without identification, contrary to what was requested by the Coalition for Melilla.

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This is how postal vote buying networks work in Melilla: "Bring me the votes, I'll buy them all"

After the first decision of the JEZ that it was necessary to present the DNI at the post office of Melilla to deliver the ballots, the security forces feared that the alleged fraudsters would escape with the votes through the port, the airport or the border with Morocco, to deposit them later in other post offices in different parts of the Peninsula. Therefore, the Civil Guard intensified the records at the exits of Melilla. Late on Thursday, the Central Electoral Board endorsed the decision of the JEZ despite going against its own doctrine, since the measure "does not limit any right to vote, but rather the opposite, guarantees that this right can be exercised in the best conditions." And it extended the obligation to identify oneself with the DNI to any Melilla who tried to deliver the envelopes in the rest of the post offices of Spain.

Once the votes could no longer be deposited outside Melilla, the Civil Guard was ordered to paralyze the special operation because "it no longer made sense" that anyone tried to flee with the votes. However, and before "something never seen" in the autonomous city and for "precaution", on Friday morning the operation resumed. "Normally, we are in the second line in the controls at airports, but now we are in the first," explain sources of the Civil Guard. "We ask if people carry postal votes at the boarding control," they add.

At another point in the city, the border crossing of Beni Enzar, cars crowded to leave Melilla for Morocco on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, an agent of the Civil Guard asked one by one to the drivers if they carried envelopes with votes. So far, only one family has admitted to carrying their own votes in their luggage. They were let go.

Unidentified votes

The decision of the JEZ to require the DNI to anyone who was to deliver the vote by mail "has deterred" those involved in the alleged electoral fraud to go and deliver the alleged votes purchased at the post office of Melilla in the last hours. Hence, the only post office in the city has remained practically deserted this Friday. Only a few dozen people have entered the premises during the day to deliver the envelope with the vote, despite the multitude of requests for postal votes registered in the autonomous city. A scene identical to that of Thursday, when the deadline to request the vote by mail was still open. "In previous elections, the last day was the worst. It was put all the way up. And this time there was no one," say government sources.

A total of 11,707 people have requested the postal vote in Melilla, 21.21% of the total votes, and more than double those registered in the 2019 elections. But only 921.7% of the requests have been delivered to office 8. Of which, 761 were deposited before the resolution of the JEZ to provide the DNI.

Two women fill out the form to request the postal vote in front of the Post Office of Melilla, this Thursday. Antonio Ruiz

Meanwhile, the JEZ of Melilla met again on Friday afternoon to resolve two issues. On the one hand, the request of the PSOE that the postal votes be deposited in a separate ballot box during the election day of 28-M, a request that the JEZ rejected. On the other hand, the request of Coalition for Melilla that the 761 votes already deposited in Correos before the obligation to go with the DNI were annulled, which was also rejected by the board. The judge had already ordered last week to identify anyone who delivered five or more votes per person in Correos. According to the Government Delegation, no one exceeded that number.

But the conflict will not stop there. Coalition for Melilla intends to challenge this second measure, and also provide evidence against the Popular Party. The party's president, Mustafa Aberchan, was banned for vote-buying in 2008. Hence, the candidate for the elections of the Assembly of Melilla is Dunia Almansouri and not himself.

Sources in the security forces understand that, after the dissuasive measures adopted and the tight controls, the postal votes finally cast will be much less than expected. It is also possible that vote-buying networks use other means, such as accompanying those registered to the post office to monitor that they deliver the ballot in question. "That has happened before, on election day itself," JEZ sources reveal. In Melilla, with an "unstructured" society and low income levels in some districts of the city, this network of vote capture has been entrenched for years.

According to the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, the Superior Court of Justice could request the repetition of an electoral process if there are indications that the right to vote has been violated in some way. Precisely, in 1989 and in Melilla, the repetition of elections was decreed when the "secret" nature of the votes could not be guaranteed. A decision ratified by the Constitutional Court. With a system of government that shares the characteristics of a city council and an autonomous parliament, the city distributes 25 seats in the Assembly. To win a seat, about 1,000 votes are needed. And 11,707 remain in the crosshairs.

He receives every afternoon the bulletin Diario de elecciones, written by the deputy director of EL PAÍS Claudi Pérez. And here, the x-ray of all the communities that go to the polls.

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