Allegations of Vote Buying Cloud Melilla Elections as Mail-In Ballots Surge

The Supreme Court confirmed in 2021 the decision of the Superior Court of Malaga to convict for electoral fraud (vote buying) the main leaders of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and Coalición por Melilla, a party in favor of ceding the city to Morocco. In the context of the May 28 elections, some 60,000 residents of Melilla are called to the polls and about 20% of them have requested to vote by mail. The vast majority would have already sold their vote in exchange for an average of a hundred euros or a job, reports Libertad Digital.

According to the newspaper, all of Melilla knows that Morocco is behind this electoral fraud, denouncing the fact that the Spanish government and its leader, Pedro Sanchez, have abandoned the autonomous city to its fate. The same source wonders if these secret agreements with Rabat provide for the gradual cession of Ceuta and Melilla. Despite the assurance of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who recently stated that the two cities are not threatened, in reality, they seem to belong more and more to Morocco than to Spain.

The populations of Ceuta and Melilla, stifled for years by Morocco, can no longer stand to continue to suffer the "demographic, diplomatic and military pressure and to demand in vain protection, security and services equivalent to those of the rest of Spain". The Moroccan authorities, for their part, are only waiting for the right moment to recover the two enclaves, no doubt after poverty, crime, insecurity, unemployment and instability have reached alarming proportions, dares to say the newspaper.