The phones of citizens were inundated by a hoax about the Andalusia elections this June 19. WhatsApp has been spreading easily removable false information. However, it has also spread like wildfire through the forwarding and sharing of messages. It’s a hoax about the Popular Party (PP), Vox, and Vox’s main candidates Juanma Moreno & Macarena Olona.
WhatsApp sent a false message saying that the ballot papers for Sunday’s Andalusian election “are manipulated against Vox” because “the name Juanma Moreno and Abascal doesn’t appear on them”. Therefore, they would be invalid votes, and the left would win. This information is false.
This hoax is based on ignorance about the Andalusian legislative system. It is true that Juanma Moreno’s and Macarena Olona’s names only appear for voters in Malaga and Granada, as the candidates are presented by the provinces and not the whole autonomous community.
The ballot papers that do not include names of these candidates are compliant with the regulations for elections to the Andalusian parliament. They also contain the names and addresses of party leaders from each of the eight Andalusian regions. The candidate for Junta de Andalucia de Vox is Macarena Olona. She may not appear in the ballot papers for other provinces as Juanma Moreno is for Malaga.
However, the names of Santiago Abascal and Alberto NunezFeijoo are not in these lists because they are candidates for future national elections.
