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Date Published: 25/05/2023

Almeria politicians paid 200 euros for votes from foreigners

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The electoral fraud plot, which has seen seven people arrested, centred around buying votes from foreign citizens

Almeria politicians paid 200 euros for votes from foreigners

Candidates and advisors of the local branch of the socialist PSOE party in Mojácar, Almeria reportedly tried to pay cash sums to foreign nationals in order to secure their postal votes, Guardia Civil sources have revealed.

This Wednesday May 24, just four days before every municipality in Spain goes to the polls to elect their new government teams, police arrested seven people in the Andalucía town of Mojácar, two of whom were candidates for councillorships.

These suspects are accused of having paid between 100 and 200 euros in exchange for votes from foreign nationals living in the town, and even offered extra commissions of 50 euros if they got their acquaintances or relatives to agree to also commit electoral fraud.

According to police soruces, the plot was mainly aimed at securing postal votes among citizens of Latin American origin with low purchasing power living in Mojácar. Among those arrested are several people from countries such as Ecuador and Nicaragua.

In addition, according to the same sources, the corrupt network not only bought votes with money in the most deprived areas of Mojácar, but also made promises to find these people jobs if they got into power.

In the more than ten searches carried out yesterday in different homes and premises in Mojácar, police seized lists of the census where the names of citizens were marked, receipts of postal votes and technological material.

They had to move fast to take down the operation as today is the deadline for casting postal votes, and there was a risk that, once all the postal votes had been cast, any relevant documentation of the case would be destroyed.

However, the investigation started a month ago thanks to a citizen tip-off alerting police to the “anomalous” behaviour he was observing in Mojácar.

It follows another investigation that led to arrests for the purchase of postal votes in the Spanish exclave of Melilla.

Image: PSOE

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