Melilla (EFE).- The Central Electoral Board (JEC) has agreed on Thursday to request the identification of voters who vote in Melilla at any of the country’s post offices, a requirement that to date was restricted to residents of the Autonomous City.
This Wednesday, the Zone Electoral Board (JEZ) resolved that voters by mail identify themselves when casting their vote at the Melilla Post Office, after 9,905 voters, 17.95% of the census in the city requested this type of vote, seven times more than the national average.
In the agreement adopted today by the Central Electoral Board, said identification of the voter by ID, passport or other valid document is extended to the rest of the post offices when it is electoral documentation addressed to some of the polling stations in Melilla.
Possibility of fraudulent use of voting by mail in Melilla
This decision is motivated by the seriousness of “the possibility of fraudulent use of voting by mail” in said autonomous city.
As the JEC recalls, information from the Post Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Electoral Census Office and the Government Delegation in Melilla, 43 electoral documents have been stolen during their transfer to voters by different Post Office delivery men, all of them belonging to voters assigned to tables in Melilla.
All were canceled by blocking the respective identification codes, which prevents them from being admitted by any office in the national territory.
One of the effects of the request for identification in the only post office in Melilla has been the disappearance of long queues of citizens to request the vote, whose term ended yesterday.
Following the assault on several postmen to steal their votes, National Police agents have been guarding the office for the past few days.
Control at the port and airport
This measure is complemented by a control device at the port and the airport, which are the points where attention is now being placed to try to avoid a massive transfer of votes by mail from Melilla to other post offices in Spain where they do not the order of the Zone Electoral Board is applied.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, to which EFE has had access, Melilla has already reached 11,002 applications for voting by mail -10,062 requested in the office and 940 via the web- and is close to touching 20% of the census, seven times more than the national average, which is 2.84%, and also very far from Ceuta, where it is 3.30% (1,991 applications).
Of the 11,002 people who have requested to vote by mail in Melilla, only 704 have cast their vote as of today, May 18.
Meanwhile, the police investigations to try to clarify whether there has been vote buying in Melilla in exchange for financial compensation are under judicial secrecy and are “very advanced”, according to sources close to the investigation.