Spain’s Sanchez accuses PP of ‘poisoning’ election campaign, fumes at postal voting criticism

The centre-right Partido Popular (PP, EPP) is trying to poison the political campaign in Spain by questioning the democratic transparency of the public postal voting system, Spain’s acting Prime Minister and Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday.

At an election rally in Murcia on Wednesday, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo urged Spain’s nearly 80,000 postmen to work “independently of their bosses” and deliver “all the vote” by post for the 23 July general election before the Thursday deadline.

The PSOE (S&D) candidate interpreted his words as an attempt to cast a shadow over the transparency of the postal voting system in Spain.

Private radio station Cadena SER reported about the controversy with headlines such as “Feijóo feeds the conspiracy”, but left-wing digital newspaper Infolibre was even harsher: “Feijóo gives wings to another ‘pucherazo’ (fraud) theory”.

In an attempt to calm the controversy, the leader of the PP clarified his words on Thursday and said he did not mean to talk about the possibility of electoral fraud.

“Nobody here is talking about pucherazo“, said Núñez Feijóo, while stressing that his comments referred to the complaints of the unions of state-owned postal company Correos about the “chaos” in the distribution of ballot papers.

Hiding the pacts between PP and VOX

In an interview aired by Cadena SER, Sánchez said Thursday that he was convinced that the PP leader’s comments were aimed at “covering up” the centre-right party’s pacts with the far-right VOX party (ECR) in Extremadura and the Valencia region, and to avoid talking about citizen´s real “concerns”.

According to official figures, as of Thursday, the last day of the postal vote deadline, 2.5 million requests had been registered, equivalent to 6.7% of the entire electorate.

Spain’s public postal company, which has made 19,400 temporary contracts to reinforce the postal voting process, issued a statement defending its impartiality and professionalism.

Spain’s postal company defends its impartiality

The company defended the postal voting system in Spain as “safe” and “guarantee-based”, recalling that the Central Electoral Board, an independent body, is responsible for auditing the process and ensuring that it is carried out with all the guarantees for citizens.

This new controversy is reminiscent of the one that occurred a few days before the municipal and regional elections on 28 May, with a few cases of attempted electoral fraud with postal voting in Mojácar and Melilla.

Sánchez denied that concrete orders or specific guidelines had been given by Correos’ executive about postal voting and assured that the election would be a “clean” process.

Spain is “a full and robust democracy” that is among the best countries in the ranking of democratic quality, the socialist leader stressed.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)