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As I mentioned before there seems to have been way too many irregularities in this poll, apparently all with the sole objective of removing votes from the Internationalist Initiative list (II-SP), backed by the Basque Nationalist Left (among others).
While the whole details are still unclear, the total amount of suppressed votes in Spain as whole could be close to the 200,000, what would have given this list at least one seat in the Strassburg, possibly even more.
The total increase on suspicious null and blank votes in the state has been of 182,000, in spite of increased abstention. The blank vote has become this way "the third political force" in Spain, in spite that nobody was calling for such kind of protest vote modality.
This alone should raise eyebrows but the case is that the evidence of irregularities is at this stage much more detailed and clear. As I already wrote, in many Basque municipalities the votes to II-SP, as registered in the electoral acts, have been assigned by the government to other parties such as neofascist Democracia Nacional or other totally irrelevant lists, some of which have suddenly become formally the first political forces in towns like Amezketa, where they never ever before got a single vote.
This fraud is particularly concentrated in Gipuzkoa, within the Basque borders, though it has also been spotted in some Navarrese towns. The ammount of the vote rigging may be as large as to make II-SP the third political force in the whole southern Basque Country (while the official figures place it fourth instead).
But the situation is even much worse beyond the historical Basque borders. To begin with in many polling stations through Spain II-SP's ballots were not even present, what is in itself totally illegal. In many other cases the ballots had printing errors, what could have been served as pretext to declare them null. In several towns like Gandía, Málaga or Castelló it has been actually denounced that the same kind of transfer of votes spotted in Gipuzkoa has happened as well. In Barcelona province alone 33,000 null votes more than in the past election have appeared out of the blue, much of the same can be said of Madrid, where II-SP had some meaningful backers. In the different Castilian regions, the traditional vote for Izquierda Castellana (Castilian Left), that supported II-SP in these European polls, has fallen officially between 50 and 70%.
The cases are becoming more and more specific as I write: II-SP reports that in many polling stations in Catalonia, for example, voters of this list, who in some cases went together with friends or family to vote, have found that not a single vote was attributed to their option.
This kind of massive vote rigging has no precedent in a century and shows to what extremes is the Spanish post-fascist regime willing to reach to suppress democratic opposition if radical enough.
Luis Ocampo, speaker of II-SP asked all electoral agents of the list to go to the official provincial recounts that will take place today. He said that if the apparent irregularities are confirmed, they could even demand legally at court the nullification of the whole election, what, if accepted, would cause the process to be repeated. Nevertheless, if they have bothered to go so far, I guess that this is beyond the realistic possibilities.
The delegitimization of this rotten post-fascist democracy is reaching levels that were not really believed that could happen ever before. What next? And, another question, is the European Union going to turn a blind eye to this? If so, what level of degradation and corruption of democracy will they be ready to accept?
Sources: Gara, Iniciativa Internacionalista, EiTB.
Update:
The vast majority of the media is silencing this massive vote tampering. Today the official recount in all 52 Spanish provinces will take place and those irregularities that can be proven should be adressed there.
But that will not solve the issue of the 150,000 extra "blank votes" that probably were for II-SP in fact and that make up the bulk of the fraud.
Podcast: Interview with Luis Ocampo, speaker of II-SP on this issue at InfoZazpi Irratia.
The iregularities have not only affected II-SP: the coalition Europe of the Peoples-Greens, that incorporates several independentist parties from various nations of the Spanish state, has also reported similar irregularities in some towns.
.
While the whole details are still unclear, the total amount of suppressed votes in Spain as whole could be close to the 200,000, what would have given this list at least one seat in the Strassburg, possibly even more.
The total increase on suspicious null and blank votes in the state has been of 182,000, in spite of increased abstention. The blank vote has become this way "the third political force" in Spain, in spite that nobody was calling for such kind of protest vote modality.
This alone should raise eyebrows but the case is that the evidence of irregularities is at this stage much more detailed and clear. As I already wrote, in many Basque municipalities the votes to II-SP, as registered in the electoral acts, have been assigned by the government to other parties such as neofascist Democracia Nacional or other totally irrelevant lists, some of which have suddenly become formally the first political forces in towns like Amezketa, where they never ever before got a single vote.
This fraud is particularly concentrated in Gipuzkoa, within the Basque borders, though it has also been spotted in some Navarrese towns. The ammount of the vote rigging may be as large as to make II-SP the third political force in the whole southern Basque Country (while the official figures place it fourth instead).
But the situation is even much worse beyond the historical Basque borders. To begin with in many polling stations through Spain II-SP's ballots were not even present, what is in itself totally illegal. In many other cases the ballots had printing errors, what could have been served as pretext to declare them null. In several towns like Gandía, Málaga or Castelló it has been actually denounced that the same kind of transfer of votes spotted in Gipuzkoa has happened as well. In Barcelona province alone 33,000 null votes more than in the past election have appeared out of the blue, much of the same can be said of Madrid, where II-SP had some meaningful backers. In the different Castilian regions, the traditional vote for Izquierda Castellana (Castilian Left), that supported II-SP in these European polls, has fallen officially between 50 and 70%.
The cases are becoming more and more specific as I write: II-SP reports that in many polling stations in Catalonia, for example, voters of this list, who in some cases went together with friends or family to vote, have found that not a single vote was attributed to their option.
This kind of massive vote rigging has no precedent in a century and shows to what extremes is the Spanish post-fascist regime willing to reach to suppress democratic opposition if radical enough.
Luis Ocampo, speaker of II-SP asked all electoral agents of the list to go to the official provincial recounts that will take place today. He said that if the apparent irregularities are confirmed, they could even demand legally at court the nullification of the whole election, what, if accepted, would cause the process to be repeated. Nevertheless, if they have bothered to go so far, I guess that this is beyond the realistic possibilities.
The delegitimization of this rotten post-fascist democracy is reaching levels that were not really believed that could happen ever before. What next? And, another question, is the European Union going to turn a blind eye to this? If so, what level of degradation and corruption of democracy will they be ready to accept?
Sources: Gara, Iniciativa Internacionalista, EiTB.
Update:
The vast majority of the media is silencing this massive vote tampering. Today the official recount in all 52 Spanish provinces will take place and those irregularities that can be proven should be adressed there.
But that will not solve the issue of the 150,000 extra "blank votes" that probably were for II-SP in fact and that make up the bulk of the fraud.
Podcast: Interview with Luis Ocampo, speaker of II-SP on this issue at InfoZazpi Irratia.
The iregularities have not only affected II-SP: the coalition Europe of the Peoples-Greens, that incorporates several independentist parties from various nations of the Spanish state, has also reported similar irregularities in some towns.
.
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