The doubts that the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóoon the capacity of the postmen in these elections once again place Correos at the center of the crossroads of electoral campaign controversies.
“I ask the postmen in Spain, with whom I have worked for the best years of my life, to work to the fullest, to work tomorrow afternoon and night,” Feijóo said in Murcia last Wednesday. And he has insinuated an intentional lack of personnel by making this request to the postmen even though they do not have “sufficient reinforcements”. Feijóo has also insinuated malice in the direction of the postal service by asking the postmen “regardless of their bosses” to “distribute all the votes before it expires the term”.
This Thursday he did it again: “There can be no votes left in the mailboxes. And I hope that we get to work to that a situation that I do not even want to think about does not occurand it is that there is a group of people who cannot vote because the ballot has not arrived & rdquor ;, he has speculated in a radio interview.
Again in crucial elections, and in the short span of two months, voting by mail is under suspicion. In the regional and municipal elections of 28M, incidents of buying and selling votes by mail in Melilla and the town of Mojácar in Almeria, and a whole tail of extremist hoaxes, were the cause of discredit. In the 23J generals, the reason on which Feijóo bases his doubts on is the millionaire vote by mail that originates from the fact that the day of appearance before the polls has been set on a summer vacation date.
And this also brings his tail of hoaxes since the pre-campaign and on social networks. They are based on a narrative according to which the President of the Government has called the elections on July 23 so that fewer people vote, which leads to the assertion without possible confirmation that this would favor him. Sánchez has repeatedly denied that intention and accuses Feijóo of “muddying” the campaign.
How much vote does Correos face?
This time It is not the security of the vote, but its volume the touchstone. This Wednesday, a record number of applications for postal voting had been reached: 2.3 million, which almost multiplied by two those that were formulated for the 2019 elections, involving 7% of the census in this system.
This Thursday ends the vote request period, with unequal incidence according to the provinces. In general terms, it has been more frequent leave the process for the last minute of the request in the southern provinces than in those of the northern half, and more in those of the coast than in the interior, according to company sources.
The same sources estimate that the total requested postal vote will exceed two and a half million voters this day.
How many people does Correos respond to?
The 23J postal vote is unprecedented. It is, of course, a formidable amount of shipments for the time available and the size that Correos currently has, despite the fact that it is the largest public company in Spain, with 48,341 employees between its central and affiliated firms.
Precisely coming out of the doubts and insinuations that Feijóo has left floating, Correos has confirmed that it has signed 19,400 temporary reinforcement contracts for the task that represents the 23-J
With this increase in staff, the state company believes that it will be able to face what is perhaps already its main challenge in the history of democracy. But various media report, even without precise data on time and incidence, that the requested ballots are arriving late in the provinces of Almería, Barcelona, Cádiz and Madrid.
It is not new: there is no electoral process in Spain in which the postal voting system does not give rise to complaints.
Correos has also announced the extension of office hours. Those that in common circumstances close at eight in the evening will now be open until 10 at night. In addition, this Saturday and Sunday all offices in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona are open, from nine to nine on Saturday and from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon on Sunday.
With similar hours, another 2,000 offices also open, as Correos has announced, in tourist cities. Local holidays are also canceled for postmen.
He The term to request the suffrage by mail ends this Thursday, and the next day 20 ends the term to make the vote effective. From there, the margin for postmen is very little.
But more than the volume of work and the little time available to receive vote requests, process the votes cast and send them to the electoral boards… and more than the considerable increase in staff, in the last few hours -that is, since the same Monday as the televised face-to-face debate until now – the pressure on the device is focused on the fact that the professionals who work on it They have not yet received their bonuses and other extraordinary remuneration concepts anticipated by the added effort.
This has ignited the union complaint with voices threatening that numerous constituencies would not arrive on time, and that the system will collapse on the 20th. The pressure on the Post Office management and its President, Juan Manuel Serranogrows by the moment.
In gauging the challenge facing the public postal service, there is a symptomatic interest dance moving around. Union complaints are amplified by all kinds of websites and profiles on social networks from the right to the far right and the anti-system extreme right who share an interest in erode the credibility of the electoral process or the government.
But not everything is anonymous and conservative complaint. Before Feijóo dropped his first doubts about the Post Office’s ability to process so many postal votes in these elections, he was a union leader, Regino Martín, leader of the sector in CCOOwho formulated the first, very harsh criticisms, shortly after calling Pedro Sanchez the elections for a date as controversial as July 23.
And Martín has continued to insist, this Wednesday without going any further, that “Correos is not taking voting by mail seriously& rdquor; and that “they are deceiving the unions and the population,” he said on Telemadrid. “The Government does not seem fond of people going to vote & rdquor ;. In his opinion, the extensions of office hours are late and are not enough.
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Feijóo has hit the nail on the head, the key to the problem, which is now the payment of the bonuses, by making a promise to the Post Office workers with an added stone for his PSOE rival: “I promise that if they are not paid overtime , in the first Council of Ministers I’ll pay you all overtime the postmen of Spain for doing their duty, everyone,” he said in Murcia on Wednesday.
In a statement, the public company has ensured that it already has all the necessary budget items to pay: “They are already approved and will be paid in the corresponding payroll.”