The electoral committee of the Orihuela Partido Popular, has nominated it’s President, Dámaso Aparicio, as the mayoral candidate for the upcoming Municipal Elections. This is despite national leadership support from Pablo Casado for the current mayor Emilio Bascuñana.
Indeed on Monday the PP number 2, Teo García Egea, will be coming to Orihuela to endorse Bascuñana as the candidate on behalf of the party.
But despite national opposition to the move, Aparicio’s nomination has been unanimously ratified by the entire electoral committee responsible for the Orihuela municipality.
The decision was taken because Bascuñana has not responded to the offer of a pact that was presented a couple of weeks ago in a meeting in Murcia, which included putting Dámaso Aparicio in as number 2.
In a statement from the Electoral Committee their spokesman said “The Local Electoral Committee of the Popular Party has appointed, unanimously, Dámaso Aparicio as their candidate for mayor of Orihuela. The members of the Committee have highlighted that it has been a very difficult decision in which many aspects have been considered, finally choosing the person we believe to be the right person for the Popular Party to gain an absolute majority in the upcoming municipal elections on May 26.”
The electoral committee will now put their recommendation to the regional leadership which has the powers to ratify their proposed candidate.
Not only will the decision of the local party incur the wrath of the national executive but it will also further widen the split that has been evident in the Orihuela PP Group for over two years, where there are two distinct factions, one led by mayor Bascuñana and the other by Orihuela PP President Aparicio.
Meanwhile on Saturday the PSOE announced their list of candidates who will fight the municipal elections in May. As expected Carolina Gracia heads the list but current councillors Emilio Zaplana and María García are relegated to numbers 12 and 13 respectively although this are thought to be at their own requests.
Gracia said that the candidacy presented “is formed by Orioles committed to the city and determined to promote the socialist project.”
