Bari, electoral corruption. The mayor of Triggiano is under house arrest –

The mayor of Triggiano (Ba), Antonio Donatelli and Sandro Cataldo – husband of the regional transport councilor, Anita Maurodinoia – are among the people who ended up under house arrest as part of an investigation by the Bari prosecutor’s office for electoral corruption. In total, there are ten suspects, one of whom ended up in prison, seven under house arrest and two with a residence ban in the municipality of Triggiano: these would be involved, in various capacities, in an association aimed at electoral corruption, through an illicit mechanism with reference to the administrative elections of 20 and 21 September 2020 in the municipality of Grumo Appula, and of 3 and 4 October 2021 in the municipality of Triggiano.

The investigations, conducted by the Carabinieri, made it possible to reveal a proven illicit agreement which, on the occasion of both electoral consultations, guided the voting preferences of numerous voters, through the payment of money and other benefits to them. In particular, the head of the “South at the center” political movement, Sandro Cataldo, currently under house arrest, through an association that managed to channel preferences, illicitly acquired votes during the consultations in the Municipality of Triggiano in 2021. The purpose set it was the re-election of the then mayor and two other city councilors, not recipients of the measure. The first citizen, then effectively re-elected, Antonio Donatelli, was subjected to house arrest. The preferences were also conditioned in exchange for 50 euros per vote and those who accepted the agreement would have to hand over a copy of their identity documents and the ballot paper for a precise counting of the votes section by section. The verification was carried out during the counting operations where various “followers” of the organizers – who were permanently stationed near the sections assigned to them – verified whether the people had actually gone to vote as well as, at the time of the counting, they checked the actual correspondence of “purchased” votes. What was significant was what was found by the Carabinieri on the evening of 6 October 2021, in a roadside bin for undifferentiated collection in the San Giorgio district of Bari: fragments of photocopies of identity documents, tax codes of Triggiano citizens, a substantial number of facsimiles of electoral propaganda cards and leaflets. The investigation also made it possible to ascertain that a similar system had already been applied the previous year, in September 2020, during the consultations in Grumo Appula. In that case, the result to be achieved would have been the re-election of the then councilor for Security and Municipal Police, now in prison. Among the serious indications of guilt collected is the discovery of two sheets of paper on which there was a list of citizens/voters already “catalogued” by surname, name, date of birth, mobile phone, and electoral section. They had to be paid the sum of 50 euros as compensation for purchasing their vote. An “ok” had already been recorded in correspondence with several names to certify the withdrawal of the agreed sum.