“Did you vote correctly?” The question is asked with a smile between handshakes. “Always right,” some say. Others go away and talk. It’s just after half past ten in the morning and in Escola da Ladeira, in the parish of Santo António, Funchal, a mystery needs to be solved. “What are SESARAM (the regional health agency) cars doing here if they are not registered with the National Electoral Commission?”says Gonçalo Jardim, representative of the PS.
They are normal, new cars, you can see that from the license plate, white, that transport voters. Two are parked in the “upstairs” lot. Two women enter one of them. One will be no older than 30 years old and will sit in the front seat. The other will be around 60. Neither seems to have any mobility issues. The other car, parked in front of it, is waiting for the people he has brought with him.
In the small square in front of the entrance door, which gives access to the voting tables, a group of men are talking. “They are all from the PSD,” they tell me. Next to the wall is an identified man asking people who have already voted if they would like to “respond to the Católica poll for RTP”. Anyone who accepts fills out a ballot paper and places it in a cardboard ballot box.
A few minutes later, it is not yet 11 a.m., the chairman of the Parish Council appears. He is almost always on the phone. You enter, go to the polling stations, leave, go to the information table and leave again. The voter leaves for a few minutes and leaves the ballots and ballot box hanging on the wall.
Two vans are arriving. They bring the elderly. Reports of ‘irregularities’ are beginning to emerge: transport ‘that can only be illegal’ in various places, people ‘being received by those in charge’ before voting, ‘some’ being escorted to vote, people going votes and whose “Voting has already been done in the two electoral registers” – cases are mentioned in the Francisco Franco and Boliqueime schools.
“A lady arrives, hands over her citizenship card and the two inspectors verify at the same time that that name with that citizenship card number had already been downloaded. I was there and saw it at the Boliqueime School. The lady said that she had not been there, that she had not had voted and demanded to vote. I informed the lady that she had the right to protest, and she protested, and the members of the board unanimously decided that she could not vote,” he reports Maria João Rodrigues.
But the reported cases don’t stop there. There were deputies who were prevented from “carrying out their supervisory duties, namely filing a complaint,” ballot boxes that were “unsealed, not sealed, which had already received votes,” ballots delivered in PSD/CDS coalition bags “in some polling stations in the municipality of Funchal” and in some cases the bags remained visible for several minutes after the polling stations opened.
At 10:15 am, complaints are already being sent to the CNE with photos of the reported cases. By mid-afternoon it was announced that “the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, EPE, had been informed to comment” on the allegations of secret transport.
In Escola da Ajuda, in Funchal, “where the rich vote” [é o que me dizem quando revelo que vou até lá]and where Miguel Albuquerque would vote before one o’clock in the afternoon, there is a ‘seeing and being seen’ of some personalities linked to the government.
It’s 1:02 PM. I arrive at the Boliqueime School. There is another white SESARAM car that stops and drops off two people who are rushing to the polling stations without any signs of mobility problems.
The parking garage is located a few meters lower. I’m going there. The driver has the window open. I identify myself and wonder what the reason for that transport is. The answer is short: “It’s because they don’t have a vehicle.” Just for that?, I ask. “Yes,” answers the man, who feels uncomfortable with the approach.
There is a bus stop less than 20 meters above it
Three minutes later the chairman of the parish council, whom I had met in Escola da Ladeira, arrived. He enters, stays on the phone and walks to the lobby that provides access to the polling stations. He enters one, stays there for a few minutes, and as he leaves the school I ask him why he is in the crowd. “I check whether everything is going well. This morning there were some absences at the tables, people who did not come and also some computer problems”justifies.
How do people know about these cars? “They call the municipality. Cars drive around. People ask and we say yes.” And why aren’t these cars registered on the CNE website? ‘I don’t know, I think the council sent it. We informed the municipality that we would receive four cars.’ And why do they transport people who do not have or appear to have no health problems? ‘If people call, we don’t know’he replies, arguing that “up there” – and pointing to some houses – “the truck doesn’t go there”. I say there is public transport very close, and I was there this week. And do they also ask you for a car to go to work or shopping, I ask. “No… no… they have to take a taxi or walk to the bus,” he replies, laughing.
At five o’clock in the afternoon, the “fear” already expressed by Miguel Albuquerque surfaced: the abstention rate was 60.1%…
Source: DN
