A few days before the whole of Spain, including many foreign voters, go to the polls to choose their councillors for the next four years, many people are keen to do business with their ballots.
In Melilla, the National Police is already investigating between 30 and 50 people who are suspected of being part of an electoral fraud network. Purchasers were allegedly going to use the postal vote of people who would be paid between 50 and 200 euros to rig the regional elections.
El Periódico de España claims to have uncovered several users of Wallapop and Milanuncios, two online buying and selling portals, who have offer to vote in person in accordance with their clients wishes in exchange for remuneration ranging from 20 to thousands of euros.
“The regional and municipal elections are approaching and I offer to listen to which party I should vote for and I promise to do so. It would be for the regional elections in Madrid and the municipality of Colmenar Viejo,” wrote one Milanuncios user who values his vote at 20 euros.
When asked how he intends to confirm that he votes in accordance with his clients wishes, he said: “I guarantee that I will vote for whoever you tell me, I can make a video for you. I am not at all interested in scamming you. I live 10 kilometres from there and I would go to vote in person.”
Other voting offers are not as cheap as this one. Another user of the same second-hand buying and selling platform who is offering her vote for the regional elections and for the next general elections invites those interested to suggest a price. 10 euros is nowhere near enough for her. “No kidding. It must be at least four figures. The biggest thieves are the politicians,” she says, to later value her ballot at “9,000 euros.”
This practice may tempt many of those who would usually choose to stay at home. In the April 2019 general elections, practically 25% of the census stayed at home while in the November elections the figure rose to 30% of voters. The Central Electoral Board, meanwhile, have emphasised that the sale of votes is “a recurring issue in all elections and it is a crime” that would lead to a criminal conviction, as it is electoral fraud.
But the purchase would also have consequences. According to the electoral law, “those who by means of rewards, gifts, remunerations or promises of the same, directly or indirectly request the vote of any voter, or induce him or her to abstain”, will be punished with a prison sentence of six months to three years.
However, the portal Wallapop, where the offer of a vote for 300 euros in Palma de Mallorca appeared, said that they have a security team which monitors the activity on the platform. This department, which accounts for 6% of its staff, analyses the activity of profiles that advertise these articles.
“If the platform is aware that it is advertising a crime, it would delete the ad,” said lawyer Marco Esteban. In this way, in Wallapop ensures that “90% of the advertisements for disallowed items are removed before they become public in the catalogue”. The Palma de Mallorca vote sale ad was removed last Friday.
