Six-hour queues to vote in the Madrid Nursing College elections

It is eight o’clock in the afternoon and Martha and Marina leave the headquarters of the Official Nursing College of Madrid after voting in the presidential election. They smile unbelievably when discussing this with other people who are patiently waiting their turn. Martha and Marina are expected to vote from day two. Like the hundreds of people who have stretched across the building from the school headquarters to a parallel street and shouted “Shame”.

The first real election in 23 years at Madrid’s official Nursing College – six years ago was a call without warning, so the vote was not received, according to Cadena Ser – raised high expectations in the group and a lack of foresight. Either the statute of limitations, as the association advocates, or the attempt to boycott the voting of employees, as they claim, from alternative candidates to official, the situation got out of control: was – is, voting is expected. To last until late at night – a ballot box for 55,000 members.

Association spokesman Mar Rocha explains that the situation is inevitable, because that is how the election process is provided by the charter. “We are happy with this turnout,” he explains from the beginning, “but the charter says that there is only one polling station,” which decides on the election, but acknowledges that the charter is outdated. The same explanation for the voting schedule, from ten in the morning to six in the afternoon, which many nurses call “ridiculous” in the shifts of what they have to do. “Table decision,” Rocha explains.

“We’ve been warning about this for weeks”

From the Nursing Initiative, Maite Lopez Pascual claims that this was happening and that they were informed about it before yesterday, along with the ombudsman’s letters. “It’s not right, we have been warning for weeks and it seems we are tolerating everything here, but they are personally restricting the right to vote,” he said, adding that the wait started from the very beginning. In the morning, because the voting process is very slow. “They were in a bit of a hurry now, but they spent a whole day entering and voting for one person, searching for a description, which is a huge book, and leaving,” he says. Because of these delays, alternative candidates have been criticized for having to go without voting.

Belen Donsell achieved this miraculously. He arrived to vote at about 4:30 p.m., after completing his shift and picking up his daughter from school. Eight hours later both are still waiting. Your little girl’s afternoon lasts long. “I have 1,375 shifts and 240 ballots,” he recalled, explaining that at six o’clock in the afternoon, during the theoretical closing of the table, shifts were distributed among attendees to ensure voting. But he wanted to move on. “I have a dog at home from six in the morning waiting to leave the house,” he said angrily. His companions in line are responsible for his condition and allow him to sneak up. “They do not want us to vote, it’s a nullity,” he said.

The final count will say whether the current president, Jose Maria Andrada, will repeat it, or whether an alternative candidate, the Nurses’ Initiative, will win, but a dozen people in line are calling for change. “I’ll stay here until I vote,” Veronica said, at the last mile, knowing she was going to give up easily in the morning. “We do not feel imagined. [por la actual dirección]. “I had a legal problem that needed to be addressed urgently and the college had to cover it, but I was not offered a solution and I had to live my life,” he said. History repeats itself, each with its own nuances, on Mendele Pelaio Street in Madrid.

People standing in line when night falls are sometimes angry. Donsell recalls that registration in Madrid is mandatory in practice and that registration costs 53 euros per quarter. “We pay for the work and more,” they say. Mayte López, of the Nursing Initiative, recalls that the college manages a budget of € 10 million a year. “We are at risk if the opacity of these funds continues,” he said, adding that they plan to report the whole situation to the prosecutor’s office.

Rocha from college claims that part of the delay was due to “certain incidents” caused by a group of people abroad, which ended the day and created more queues. Lopez denies this: “Some of the banners screamed a bit, but it’s true,” he says. Two municipal police officers who observe patients at the door confirm that at least there was no incident during their shift.