The Police requisition information at the Melilla Government headquarters for the investigation into vote buying

MADRID/MELILLA, June 9 (EUROPA PRESS) -

Agents of the National Police have requisitioned information this Friday at the Melilla Government headquarters, consisting of the dumping of computer data, as a continuation of the investigation into the alleged purchase of votes that left a dozen detainees in the last electoral campaign of the municipalities on May 28.

As reported to Europa Press by police sources, the agents have carried out this procedure within the framework of a judicial order to carry out a data dump in the Palace of the Assembly, the seat of the Government of Melilla.

The judicial order, therefore, has had the collaboration of the Executive of the autonomous city and has not included records in government agencies. Nor have there been physical seizures of computers or other devices such as hard drives by agents of the Economic and Fiscal Crime Unit (UDEF).

The acting president of Melilla, Eduardo de Castro, has acknowledged this Friday at a press conference that the police diligence is "something serious", although without giving more details as it is a case declared secret by the city's Investigating Court number 2 . In addition, he has indicated that he had signed a decree to request the collaboration of the officials regarding the required documentation.

After the operation that left a dozen detainees for alleged purchase of votes by mail, including Mohamed Al-Lal, counselor of the Coalition for Melilla (CpM), the State Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz, ordered Anti-Corruption to take over this case of "transcendence from a social and political point of view".

According to the letter of the Prosecutor's Office, the criminal network began on April 4, following the publication in the BOE of the electoral call, and it would have been carried out, according to the investigations carried out, by various individuals related to or related to the political party Coalition for Melilla".

According to the Public Ministry, it had the "pretension of altering the free manifestation of the popular will" in the municipal and regional elections of March 28, which the PP won with an absolute majority. In Melilla, Eduardo de Castro, former Ciudadanos candidate, currently governs, with the support of CpM and the PSOE.

"These individuals," said the Prosecutor's Office, "would form an organized structure, with prior and concerted planning, and the purchase of votes would also be financed with part of the funds obtained by companies and individuals related to the political party indicated in public tenders, agreements, contracts and subsidies that would have been awarded during the last legislature in the autonomous city".

The attorney general's decree spoke of a "large-scale vote-buying operation, through which between 100 and 50 euros were paid to a significant number of citizens, altering the legally established mechanics of voting by mail."

Correos reported on May 26, the last day of the campaign of the 28-M elections, that it had validated 5,814 votes by mail in Melilla, almost half of the 11,700 requests processed in the autonomous city.

The data triggered the number of other elections and, together with the robbery suffered by postmen with the documentation to vote by mail, gave way to a crossover of accusations between local formations. The Electoral Board, in addition, ordered that the DNI be requested for the delivery of the votes, within a series of measures to guarantee the cleanliness of the elections.