REGGIO CALABRIA Real manipulation of the vote. A system «as unscrupulous as it is well-established and branched outof fraud aimed at influencing the free exercise of the vote and altering the electoral results” during the 2020 regional and municipal consultations. The strategist of the electoral fraud in Reggio Calabria, for the DDA, was Daniel Barillà, son-in-law of the boss Domenico Araniti and «director – on behalf of the ‘ndrina – of a tight control, aimed at monitoring and directing the vote of residents in the area under the gang’s jurisdiction. The objective was to favor the chosen candidates, as emerges from the “Ducale” investigation, these are the regional councilor of the Fratelli d’Italia Giuseppe Neri and the municipal councilor in the Democratic Party Giuseppe Francesco Sera, candidate in the team supporting the mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà . All three are under investigation. As emerges from the wiretaps, Neri, Sera and Falcomatà spoke with Barillà, discussed the possible electoral results with him and asked him for “a hand” to prevail over their political opponents.
“Section 88” and its accomplices in the polls
Influence and conditioning of the vote, but not only. Barillà had been able to study a system to implement real fraud, through the help of accomplices inside the polling stations. Brogli – is the reconstruction of the DDA – who they were implemented thanks to «the authority that Barillà had gained in the area, precisely because he belonged to the mafia family headed by his father-in-law. It was an easy game for him – in a context characterized by obsequious reverence towards the Araniti family – to find compliant members of the polling stations, identify list representatives useful to the cause and stock up on electoral certificates to artfully modify the outcome of the vote”.
«From the list of interceptions – writes the judicial police – it emerged an apparent unmotivated interest on the part of Daniel Barillà for “Section 88” that is, the one that is located inside the school building located in via Mario Cagliostro di Sambatello and which therefore collects the votes of the residents of the aforementioned district”. Through careful analysis and careful monitoring of the members of the polling station, we arrive at the name of Martina Giustra, considered «fundamental pawn for electoral fraud aimed at the victory of the candidates chosen by the gang». According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the other accomplices in carrying out the fraud coup are, in addition to Barillà and Giustra, Natale Corsaro, Antonio Dascola and Caterina Iannò, all under investigation and recipients of precautionary measures.
The system
Barilla he took care to place representatives of his trusted list in the sections between the hamlets of Gallico and Sambatello. «This is for two reasons: – we read in the ordinance – first of all because the list representative has the possibility, despite belonging to another section, to express his preference within the seat to which he is assigned; secondly because the presence of trusted representatives is functional to the project of altering voting operations, as the latter have the possibility of moving between inside and outside the polling station itself”.
The members of the group, according to the accusation, «they hoarded and improperly used the electoral cards of third partiesin order to vote without having the right or in any case to vote more than once, therefore they falsely formed, in whole or in part, and in any case counterfeited and/or altered the ballots and other documents intended for electoral operations”.
Barillà, Corsaro and Dascola, in agreement with Giustra, electoral cards were obtained from individuals who could not or did not intend to legitimately cast their voteby going to the polling station; they filled out the ballots casting votes in favor of candidates they liked (Neri and Sera) and delivered them, clandestinely, to the compliant scrutineer, together with the electoral cards and identification documents of absent voters. The Giustra inserted the ballots into the ballot box and noted (falsely) that the vote had taken place (with the indication of the number of electoral cards and identification documents) in the registers and electoral lists, thus also determining the false indication – made by the president and the secretary of the electoral office, misled. Caterina Iannò, the prosecution writes, in her capacity as scrutineer of the Section 88 polling station, gave operational support to Giustra, «provided her with information on the movements and absences of the President of the Polling Station (in order to evade his surveillance), failed to intervene – despite having the duty – to avoid the forgery and counterfeiting of electoral documents for which he shared responsibility”.
«We take and do everything”
«We take and do everything, you know? But instead of giving me… that… this one, look… without you leaving me this one which is more serious and right… we write this one… the little number… do you understand? So then that… this is bullshit, I mean no”, Barillà explained to a man to whom he asked “your sister and company… what are they doing”, saying he was sure of the fact that «I don’t think they’re right, right? can be”. The reference obviously was to whether or not to vote, and the explanation concerned the system for voting with ballot papers from people who otherwise would not have gone. Barillà asked his interlocutor to be alerted if his subjects of interest decided to go to the polls: “just find out if they go, if they go right… but if they don’t go…”. ([email protected])
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