President of Melilla does not see the "most propitious" environment for a "free" vote due to the purchase of votes, a "classic"

He affirms that he will have "no problem" in reinstating the dismissed CPM director if he is innocent

MADRID, 25 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Melilla, the independent Eduardo de Castro, has indicated that suspicions about vote buying in the autonomous city are common, an "unfortunate classic", since the last century and has expressed that the current panorama "is not the most propitious " so that there will be a "free vote" on Sunday.

In his opinion, "the climate that is taking place is not the most propitious for a free vote," he said this Thursday in an interview on Onda Cero, collected by Europa Press.

"Since 1990, the matter of buying votes by mail has been going on and nobody from the big national parties has done anything, nor has it stopped," lamented De Castro, who has alluded to a history not only of the Coalition for Melilla (CPM), but "also from the PSOE and the PP, although it did not get anywhere".

De Castro has pointed out that there are people detained from the CPM but also from the "PP, although Mr. (Juan José) Imbroda", the 'popular' candidate and president of the autonomous city from 2000 to 2019, "denies, as always, the greatest" . "The law must be changed," he has advocated, insisting that "everyone has gone through vote buying.

At the same time, he has defended suffrage as a "fundamental right" and "cannot be delegated", while indicating that he believes that the alleged electoral fraud has "no connection" with the one being investigated in Mojácar (Almería).

Regarding the dismissal of the councilor for Districts, Youth and Citizen Participation, Mohamed Ahmed Al-lal, the president of Melilla has indicated that the reason for this dismissal has been the "mess that has been involved".

"My obligation as president is to address a unity law, and if there is something that stops or questions an entire government, then my obligation is to suspend in a precautionary manner," declared De Castro, who governs in coalition with CPM and the PSOE.

Although he has qualified that "if tomorrow it is shown that" the dismissed "has nothing to do" with the case, for his part "he does not have any advantage in reappointing him", because with his decision he does not want to "question the presumption of innocence," he remarked.

Questioned if he received any explanation from Ahmed before his dismissal, he pointed out that he did not speak with him: "I did not speak with the counselor before he was dismissed. I spoke with the chief counselor, (Mustafa) Aberchán", president of CPM , "and I told him that there were worrying levels of alarm in society."

But even so, he has stressed that this arrest was not expected, "neither from him, nor from anyone from the Coalition for Melilla" and that he was surprised, since "he did not know", he said, that there was an operation in that sense".