In the middle of the holiday period, the PP accused Pedro Sánchez and his electoral progress of forcing Spaniards to choose between “ballot boxes or holidays”. The public seems determined to align both milestones, according to preliminary data on postal voting. More than 16,500 applications were registered in just four days; this is more than almost 50% of the applications received for autonomous communities.
The postal sector of the UGT union Public Services federation found the Government’s proposal to reinforce Valencia Post Offices staff unsatisfactory for the 23 July election process yesterday.
The union demands to increase the expected number of employees for the Valencian Community by at least 120 more; this could be about a thousand if recruitment estimates are met. It should be noted that following complaints from unions, the Government announced the recruitment of 5,000 people for the whole of Spain to help manage the avalanche of postal ballot applications registered after the announcement of the election advance.
In the case of the Valencian Community, in just four days (Monday to Thursday) according to the UGT, the Valencia offices received a total of 16,500 applications yesterday, as of Friday, which is 6,500 more than any application that has already managed to get a vote. By the post of autonomous and municipal elections held on 28 May.
They recall from the UGT that the guarantee to vote by mail will be based specifically on the work of “Correos’ public servants, who have shown a much higher dedication despite the vagueness and inadequacy of templates in all areas.” The union also pointed out that the increase in work will coincide with the holiday period, adding that “material and human resources need to be reinforced urgently.” In this sense, Correos points out that the planned reinforcement will serve to cover 100% of staff leaves throughout July.
An “extraordinary” effort
Miguel Ángel Ramírez, head of the UGT Post Office sector, emphasized yesterday that the staff “make an extraordinary effort to serve the public in favorable conditions” and noted that “office closing hours have been delayed” in some offices. and there have been cases of collapse.” He therefore insisted that the Post Office should provide the necessary human and material resources to ensure the administration of the vote “without queues, crowds, or overdelivery work.”