Vote buying in Mojacar muddies PSOE campaign

The plot of buying votes by mail uncovered in Mojácar clouds the closing of the PSOE's campaign for these regional and local elections and commits the party to debugging responsibilities with a demanding exercise of transparency. The operation of the Civil Guard in the municipality of Almeria has resulted so far with ten arrested, and among them are the number two and number five of the local PSOE.

The fraud acquires an added gravity by the information that publishes today

Camos: The buying of votes focused on immigrant neighbors, a group exposed to a greater risk of vulnerability. Those investigated bribed them with up to 200 euros – and 50 more if they got another person. Moreover, just six days ago, the Minister of the Presidency,

, travelled to Mojacar to support the headliner. Its presence in this town of only 7,500 inhabitants and highlighted by tourism does not prejudge anything, but it does force the PSOE to be scrupulous in its explanations. Eliminating all audiovisual records of Minister Bolaños' visit, as the party began to do yesterday, is not a good start.

The investigation confirms that the objective of the organization was to accumulate votes for the PSOE in Mojácar. The total number of ballots purchased is still unknown. Even so, it is relevant to point out that the distance between socialists and

In the municipality it is not very wide, so postal voting can be key to determining the balance. The PP governs the City Council – in an area dominated by the PSOE – and, although it does so with an absolute majority,

.

The seriousness of both this fraud and the one uncovered on Tuesday in Melilla should not be minimized. These are two cases of

orchestrated in order to subvert the popular will. In addition, in the case of the autonomous city, there are suspicions that Morocco could have intervened through the Coalition for Melilla party. However

that questions the reliability of the process as a whole. Both plots have been detected before the elections, precisely because the security forces have acted and because the different warning mechanisms of the electoral system have worked.

For all these reasons, it is necessary to point out as irresponsible the attitude that some voices framed in the orbit of Vox are exhibiting in social networks, which, in a style similar to Trump, begin to

, when our counting system has a globally recognized prestige. It is unacceptable. What is at stake is not acronyms, but essential confidence in the cleanliness of the vote, which is the main instrument with which citizens exercise their sovereign right to participate in politics.