PP postpones election slates in corruption-racked Valencia

The Popular Party on Friday decided to postpone compiling the election slates in Valencia, where some officials who want to run for reelection are judicial targets in two wide-ranging corruption schemes.

Ongoing investigations in the so-called Gürtel and Brugal cases, both alleged kickbacks-for-contracts networks, have forced the PP national electoral committee to hold off preparing the running slate, according to party sources. Miguel Arias Cañete, a former minister who serves as head of the electoral committee, has already approved the party candidacies for all the regions and municipalities holding election on May 22 with the exception of Valencia.

At the crux of the PP's concerns are the proposed candidacies in Castellón and Alicante. Ricardo Costa, who was forced to step down as the PP secretary general in Valencia after he was officially named in the Gürtel inquiry, wants to run for regional deputy for Castellón while José Joaquín Ripoll, provincial chief in Alicante who was named in the Brugal trash contract scandal, wants to run for reelection.

In a related development, the Madrid regional High Court again denied bail to the suppose heads of the Gürtel scheme, Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo, who have been awaiting trial in jail since February 2009. Judge Antonio Pedreira said in his ruling that Correa still has some 17 million euros stashed away in Switzerland.