Agustin Martin Santos once again casts a shadow over Spanish volleyball, opening the door to alleged fraud in the voter lists | Relief

Can you imagine that the president of a neighborhood association is caught stealing from a house in a building via security cameras, manages to get away unharmed, and decides to remove the security cameras so that the next time he wants to steal something? is he caught in the same place? Something similar happens in election of the President of the Royal Spanish Volleyball Federationwhich has already begun the electoral process, which will end after the Olympic Games in Paris.

As Relevo learned, the federation (presided by Agustín Martín Santos since 2000 and facing the first elections in which the one who was the “almighty” leader of Valladolid will not be present) has decided build a wall so that nothing and no one can detect possible falsifications in the voter lists, as happened four years ago in an election in which a judge ruled that “they did not stand out for their transparency.” How? Prevention no one can advise a full and detailed census of the electors, as in previous years, looking for irregularities committed outside the current government. In the first days after the opening of the election procedure, registrants could only know “OK” whether their name was on the list.

Going back four years ago, as reported by Relevo on May 17, the Federation of Castile and León, where Agustin Martin Santos works as an administrator whose salary is included in the electoral census. a “ghost team” based in Valladolid, with Canarian players and registered in the 3rd regional division, a category in which they have never played. That is, the inclusion of some players in a team that never existed, in the league without a game and, if that wasn’t enough, in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

This information was confirmed in a conversation with this publication by Martin Santos himself, who said that “this does not compensate” for the number of votes and that “we would not do this today.” Despite the astonishing nature of the case, the alleged team of CD Apostolado de Valladolid represented only a small part over 600 new censuses at the last minute In this election there are only 529 people with a certificate from the Madrid Federation. “Within the framework of the law, everyone is looking for ways to get more support,” he tried to justify himself in this way, trying to influence the final result of the elections.

Lack of transparency and freedom of action for fraud

Now the strategy seems clear: if no one outside their circle can check these lists, no one will be able to detect possible “ghost teams” or the massive inclusion of voters from federations associated with the established government.who on this occasion will be presented as the candidacy of the current Vice-President of the RFEVB and President of the Madrid Federation, Felipe Pascual.

The situation today means an alleged non-compliance with the order of the Ministry for the regulation of elections of sports federations, which states that “telematic access to the census will limited, once identified, to those holding a federal license and organizations that are part of or integrated into the relevant Spanish sports federation and request it.” fraud or illegality by having the necessary documentation at hand, as happened in the last election.

Denying access directly defeats the purpose of the order.which emphasizes that “the processing and publication of data contained in the census will have the sole purpose of ensuring that voters exercise their right to vote, and guarantee the transparency of the electoral process“.

As several Relevo sources confirmed, census data is being blocked a claim has already been filed with the Sports Administrative Court (TAD), which will have to decide whether the actions of the Spanish Volleyball Federation do not comply with the regulations. Of course, even if the ASEZ decides to change the situation and all participants in the electoral process will be able to familiarize themselves with the entire census, Time in this process is very important in the fight for purity..

For example, in the previous elections, the candidacy of the President of the Catalan Federation, Maribel Zamora, put forward by Now Will, denounced the difficulty of verifying how many of the registered persons were legitimate due to time constraints. Now days pass without access to the census, and the search for possible “errors” is becoming increasingly difficult due to the timing.

Now only names

In the last few hours, in response to complaints from several territories and athletes, the federation has decided to cover up its ploy by extending the deadline for filing claims, sharing list of names from the census, with a 10 by 10 census page format, but no information about club, category, territorial federation or age, making it impossible to verify whether any of these names are among those registered.. Regardless of whether there are illegal or immoral maneuvers in this maneuver, there is no doubt that it is an operation that is in direct opposition to the transparency that the electoral process should have.

The veto on access to the census will be the last dark stage in the career of Agustín Martín Santos (president for the last 24 years), who in this last term promoted – as reported by Relevo on May 16 – a change in criteria that would benefit the autonomous federation of Castile and León. where he admits that he also works as an administrator.