ANDRÉ KOSTERS/LUSA
PSD candidate complains about voters registered with false addresses, 80% of them with family ties to the head of the PS list. 12 voters from the Union of Parishes of Montalegre and Padroso have already returned to their home address, he denounces.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into possible irregularities in voter registration in Union of Parishes of Montalegre and Padrosofollowing a complaint from the PSD candidate, Sandra Batista, the newspaper advances.
The complaint presented the day after the elections points to the existence of voters registered with false addresses. The social democrat maintains that several dozen people — 80% of transhumant voters — will have declared residences that do not exist or do not correspond to their real address in order to be able to vote in the parish. It guarantees that they do not maintain any effective connection to the parish and that they have direct family ties with the head of the PS list, Paulo Reis, current president of the Board.
Another 20% will be linked to the Montalegre Sports and Cultural Center, an institution that the mayor previously directed, including former football players, which, in the complainant’s opinion, reinforces suspicions that the migration of voters was organized to favor the socialist list.
“The facts were witnessed by everyone. Montalegre is a small town, where everyone knows each other and knows who lives where”, he maintains: “there are records of people who appear on the electoral roll without there being proof (proof of residence, rental contracts, public service bills, or usual contacts) of residing there”.
Since the beginning of the year, 134 people have changed their address to the parish, with there being cases of addresses that correspond to empty shops or houses, and some of the new voters have already moved back to their place of origin.
The PSD also claims that several of these new voters have already they changed their address again to the place of origin shortly after the election.
The PSD tried to appeal to the Constitutional Court, but the appeal was considered untimely as it was submitted 31 minutes late in relation to the legal deadline. Furthermore, according to the advisors, these types of questions should not be assessed by the Constitutional Court at that stage.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the opening of the investigation, but proving address falsification is difficult and a possible repeat of the elections would be very unlikely, say jurists consulted by Público.
The law does not prevent a citizen from changing residence for a short period of time, as long as the change is genuine. It is necessary to unequivocally demonstrate that the addresses presented are false in order for criminal proceedings to take place.
