50 euros for each preferential vote. Triggiano, mayor of the Bari area arrested

Electoral corruption, earthquake in the Bari area: mayor of Triggiano arrested. The husband of the regional transport councilor Anita Maurodinoia is also in handcuffs

New earthquake in the Bari area: the mayor of Triggiano (Bari), Antonio DonatelliAnd Sandro Cataldohusband of the regional transport councilor Anita Maurodinoiaand representative of the South to Center political movement, were arrested and placed under house arrest on charges of electoral corruption as part of an investigation by District anti-mafia directorate on an alleged vote buying for the municipal elections of Triggiano in 2021 and Grumo Appula in 2020. The investigation was launched after the discovery, the October 6, 2021 in a rubbish bin, fragments of photocopies of identity documents and tax codes.

According to the accusation accepted by the investigating judge, the investigations unmasked a well-organised plan to influence the vote of numerous voters during local elections, through illicit payments and other favours. As reported by the local website In Puglia 24the authorities, led by the Bari Prosecutor's Office and coordinated by the Carabinieri, revealed that the leader of an influential political movement local, now under house arrest, manipulated votes in Triggiano in 2021 to favor the re-election of the mayor and two municipal councilors. The mayor, effectively re-elected, was placed under house arrest. The votes, he reveals In Puglia 24have been conditioned by payments of 50 euros and voters had to provide copies of their identity documents and ballot papers for a detailed vote count by precinct. During the counting, the organization's collaborators verified the turnout and checked the correspondence of the “purchased” votes. A significant discovery occurred on the evening of October 6, 2021when the Carabinieri found fragments of identity documents, tax codes of citizens of Triggiano and a considerable quantity of ballot papers and propaganda material in a waste collection bin in the San Giorgio district of Bari.

Again according to what In Puglia 24 reports, the investigation also revealed that a similar method was used the previous year, in September 2020during the elections a Lump Appula. On that occasion, the objective was the re-election of the then Councilor for Security and Municipal Police, now detained in prison. Among the serious evidence collected, two sheets were discovered containing a list of voters already identified by name, surname, date of birth, telephone number and electoral section. These voters would have received 50 euros in exchange for their vote. An “ok” had already been marked next to several names to confirm the withdrawal of the agreed money.

The circumstantial framework collected by the Carabinieri against the suspects, concludes the local site, was shared by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bari, which made a request for the issuance of a precautionary measure. The investigating judge of the Court of Bari, accepting the request, ordered today's precautionary measure. However, it should be underlined that the procedure is in the processing phase preliminary investigations and that, upon execution of today's precautionary measures, the guarantee interrogation and the confrontation with the defense of the suspects will follow, whose possible guilt, in relation to the alleged crimes, must be ascertained during the trial in the cross-examination between the parties.