Melilla's vote-buying plot used bricklayers and small businessmen to rig public contracts

Bricklayers, small construction businessmen, a vehicle parts seller, another furniture seller, the bar owner and a couple of cleaning workers.

The investigation into the alleged vote-buying plot uncovered in Melilla shortly before the regional elections on May 28 has focused on microbusinesses and self-employed workers in this town who allegedly received rigged contracts between 2019 and 2023 from the local government departments. that controlled the Coalition for Melilla (CpM), the party of Mustafa Aberchán, one of seven leaders of this party arrested on Tuesday by the National Police.

Specifically, these are six companies, most with a single employee, and 15 people who appear as self-employed or administrators of these who, in the four years in which the local party was part of the Melilla Executive, allegedly received contracts. rigged that allegedly served the formation to finance, among other things, the purchase of votes for two elections.

The head of the Investigative Court 2 of Melilla, María del Carmen Perles, ordered the local government in June, shortly after the first arrests, to suspend any payment that was planned to be made to these companies and self-employed workers by the executive itself, municipal companies or public companies dependent on it.

According to the list of companies and self-employed workers under suspicion, to which EL PAÍS has had access, there are five small companies whose corporate purpose is “construction of residential buildings” and one more that appears as a promoter of “recreational and entertainment activities.” .

The sole directors of five of these companies are also investigated, as well as a dozen self-employed workers.

Among the latter there are six people who are listed as bricklayers, two of whom were already arrested in the first phase of the operation, in May.

Along with them are two people dedicated to “building cleaning and conservation services” or “disinfection”;

one more, which is dedicated to “retail trade in motor vehicle spare parts”;

another one, with a “bar-cafeteria”;

and another, which sells “furniture and computer equipment.”

Some of them had received awards to carry out small works that, in most cases, did not exceed 10,000 euros.

According to sources close to the investigation, the plot used the four ministries that were in the hands of the local party during the previous one, diverted money through the allegedly irregular awarding of minor contracts, as well as various subsidies, with the ultimate objective of financing the plot and benefiting to their alleged leaders.

The suspicion falls on those awards that were divided into smaller contracts to avoid the call for public tenders and, in this way, have a free hand to award them, avoiding their oversight.

The investigations point to the alleged rigging of awards worth six million euros.

The investigations indicate that a “small” part of the funds allegedly received by the plot for these irregular awards was used for the purchase of votes.

The Police are trying to clarify what the rest was used for, although everything indicates that another part was used to hire individuals who acted as thugs for third parties whom members of the plot wanted to intimidate for different reasons.

The investigations also look for indications of whether there was personal enrichment on the part of any of the main people involved.

The case investigates crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, fraud in public procurement, prevarication and embezzlement of public funds.

"Criminal organization"

The judge considers the seven CpM leaders arrested on Tuesday as alleged members of a “criminal organization” that in a “planned” manner diverted funds through the rigging of public contracts to “corrupt” the results of the 2019 and 2023 regional elections. In a writing, the magistrate pointed out that, with this, CpM intended to “reach the Government” – it achieved this in the previous legislature, when it joined the tripartite party headed by the Ciudadanos candidate and in which the PSOE was also present after being the second most voted force― and “maintain” it after the May elections by purchasing votes that were subsequently cast by mail in both elections.

The first phase of the operation, in which a councilor of the Aberchán party was already arrested, thwarted the electoral fraud that allegedly would have allowed CpM to improve the results of 2019, when it obtained 10,472 votes.

Finally, the 28-M fell to 5,557 and won five of the 25 councilors, three less than in the previous elections, which forced him to go to the opposition and lose the councils.

The judge emphasized that there was “a distribution of functions among the people involved” in what she called a “criminal network.”

In addition, from Aberchán, Dunia Almansouri, her number one for 28-M and former Minister of the Treasury, was arrested this Tuesday;

Rachid Bussian Mohamed, former Minister of Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Sports;

Hassan Mohatar, former Minister of Environment and Sustainability;

Mohamed Ahmed Al-Lal, former Minister of Districts, Youth and Citizen Participation, who was already arrested in May in the first phase of the operation;

Fátima Mohamed Kaddur, former deputy minister of Mayor and Neighborhood Relations, and Yonaida Sel-lam, president of the Melilla Municipal Housing and Land Company (Emvismesa).

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