The Election Board stepped in and stopped the Mayor of Motril holding a concert in the newly finished municipal building.

There was to be a concert in the Centro de Desarrollo Turístico on Friday the 24th at 21.30h, given by the excellent Joven Orquestra del Sur.

However, the Election Board, charged with making sure that elections go smoothly, considered that the concert was an excuse to carry out an official inauguration of the building, which is strictly forbidden in the run up to an elections.

It’s not the first time that a ruling party on the Costa Tropical has tried to side step this restriction. In fact, about a decade back the Almuñécar PP under the then Mayor Juan Luis Montero very questionably inaugurated the Fisherman’s Statue in the Plaza de Madrid during the official inauguration ban.

The restriction is taken so seriously that if a mayor does succeed in slipping a self-promotional inauguration in during the said period (Artículo 53, Ley de Régimen Electoral) the election results could be declared null and void.

There is nothing to stop a Mayor from opening a new building or infrastructure for public use, but there can be no inauguration ceremony.

The Mayor, Luisa García, had the following to say, “Unfortunately, I have to announce that the concert has been suspended owing to a complaint lodged by an opposition party (IU).”

She went on to roundly criticise the other political groups, “Not only are they against culture in our township, but they also attack the general interests of Motril by preventing his building being put into use until after the elections.”

Editorial comment: You can bet your grandmother’s rocking chair that she would be the first to howl had the boot be on the other foot, but, that’s politicians for you.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)