Madrid (EFE) one of the safest and most guaranteed in the world” while considering that the incidents involving the purchase of votes by mail in Melilla and other locations should not influence participation.
“We believe that citizens will participate as they always have in an electoral process. The detected incidents have shown that the system works perfectly, detects and repairs”, he pointed out at a press conference at the National Data Center in Hall 14 of the IFEMA-Madrid fairgrounds from where he will report tomorrow on the entire electoral process together with the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea.
Vallès has conveyed a message of calm to all voters. “Citizens can be very calm about how the electoral process is going to work,” he has stressed on several occasions after avoiding speaking out on a possible reform of electoral legislation during this day of reflection. -LOREG- since no political party can campaign or evaluate today.
The Secretary of State has guaranteed the neatness of the elections this Sunday and has stressed that the Spanish electoral system works so that the day “runs with maximum normality”.
Young people between 18 and 23 years old, 5% of the census
“I would like to emphasize that everything is ready for the elections to take place as normal”, the Undersecretary of the Interior has also reiterated, who has thanked the willingness and collaboration of administrations, presidents, members and substitutes and proxies of the polling stations, in these twelfth elections municipal governments to which 35.6 million citizens are called.
Goicoechea recalled that 1.7 million young people between the ages of 18 and 23 will vote for the first time, 5% of the total census, while also highlighting the device of almost 100,000 agents of the Security Forces and Corps of the State.
Precisely, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has also visited this afternoon together with the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, the entire Pavilion 14 of IFEMA to recognize in situ the cybersecurity system that will monitor the elections that renew more of 8,000 municipalities and the governments of 12 autonomous communities, as well as the Assemblies of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the island councils.
215,000 ballot boxes and 59,000 booths
Vallès explained that at 10:30 a.m. he will offer the first press conference together with the Undersecretary of the Interior to report on the process of opening the polling stations and the constitution of the polling stations and at 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. ,30 hours will return to report on the progress on the levels of participation.
Depending on the progress of the scrutiny, it is expected that the Minister of the Interior and the Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, will appear at a press conference at around 10:30 p.m. to provide the data on the provisional results.
The almost 23,000 polling stations will open their doors at 9:00 a.m. and close them at 8:00 p.m. and almost 181,750 citizens will be part of the 60,576 polling stations, where 215,000 ballot boxes and 59,000 booths have also been prepared to guarantee the secrecy of the vote.
The budget for these elections, which elect 67,152 councilors and in which 414,000 foreigners residing in Spain participate, has amounted to 203.6 million euros.