The Electoral Board of Andalusia has ordered the removal of anonymous posters denounced by the PSOE-A in the final stretch of the Andalusian elections campaign on March 17. The electoral body considers that this propaganda violates the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, by being disseminated without identification of authorship and being directed against a specific political party.
The decision comes on the last day of the campaign and after the socialists denounced the "massive and simultaneous" appearance of posters in several cities and municipalities in Seville, Cadiz, Huelva, Cordoba, and Jaen. The PSOE-A considers them a covert political propaganda operation aimed at demobilizing its electorate and harming socialist leaders and figures.
The Electoral Board largely agrees with the PSOE-A: the posters must be removed. However, it is not opening disciplinary proceedings because it has not been able to identify the authors of the campaign. In its agreement, the body also reminds the socialists that they can go to the Public Prosecutor's Office if they consider that the facts could constitute a crime.
Electoral Board sees electoral propaganda with no identified author
The agreement of the Electoral Board of Andalusia maintains that the denounced posters constitute electoral propaganda against a specific political party, but with a key peculiarity: they do not include any anagram, signature, or identification of who promoted them.
That absence of authorship is the central point of the resolution. For the JEA, the campaign constitutes a transgression of the principle of transparency enshrined in Article 8.1 of the Loreg. It also points to a possible infringement of Article 50, which reserves the carrying out of electoral campaigns to candidates, parties, federations, coalitions, or electoral groupings.
The Electoral Board further emphasizes that the posters appear to have been placed in spaces other than those authorized for free electoral propaganda, which could also violate Article 56 of the Loreg.
Order for immediate removal of posters
The practical consequence of the agreement is clear: the Electoral Board urges the competent authorities to immediately remove the denounced propaganda that has been distributed in Andalusia.
The resolution allows the PSOE-A to request those authorities to execute the removal of the posters based on the JEA's own agreement. That is, the electoral body does not limit itself to noting the irregularity: it orders that this propaganda disappear from the spaces where it has been placed.
The decision has an evident political impact because it comes just before the reflection day and two days before the Andalusian elections on Sunday, May 17. In a campaign so tight in its final phase, the fight for closing messages has also moved to the terrain of anonymous propaganda.
There will be no sanction because the authors are not identified
The Electoral Board, however, does not open a sanctioning file. The reason is that it cannot identify the author or authors of the campaign, precisely because of its anonymous nature.
That is the legal limit of the resolution: the JEA appreciates an action contrary to electoral transparency, orders the removal of the posters, but cannot sanction anyone if there is no identified responsible party.
Therefore, the electoral body reminds the PSOE-A that it can go to the Prosecutor's Office if it believes that the posters could involve the commission of a crime. It also opens the door for it to urge actions by the Security Forces and Corps to try to clarify who is behind the distribution.
What the PSOE-A denounced
The PSOE-A had brought the case before the Electoral Board considering that the posters were part of an anonymous, coordinated, and manipulative campaign deployed during the regional campaign. The socialists pointed out that the propaganda had appeared in Seville, Cádiz, Huelva, Córdoba, and Jaén and that it was directed against the party and against socialist figures.
Among the denounced messages were local and political references intended, according to the PSOE-A, to simulate internal rejection or disaffection towards the socialist candidacy. The complaint argued that the posters sought to project an appearance of fracture, demobilization, or rejection of the Andalusian PSOE to progressive voters.
The socialists also highlighted the homogeneity of the posters: same visual style, same graphic structure, similar codes, absence of authorship, and simultaneous deployment in several provinces. For the PSOE-A, this territorial and aesthetic coincidence ruled out a spontaneous action and pointed to an organized operation.
The PSOE-A speaks of "black propaganda"
The socialist complaint described the events as a form of covert political propaganda or "black propaganda". The PSOE-A's argument is that the campaign did not aim to exercise identifiable political criticism, but rather to alter the electorate's perception by concealing who was promoting it.
That opacity is precisely what the Electoral Board now refers to when speaking of a violation of the principle of transparency. In an electoral campaign, authorship matters: the voter has the right to know who is promoting a political message, especially when that message seeks to influence the vote or discourage support for a candidacy.
The case adds tension to an Andalusian campaign that was already marked by the harshness of the final stretch, with exchanges of accusations, complaints to the Electoral Board, and increasingly aggressive strategies in the campaign's closing stages.
The Córdoba case also reaches the courts
In parallel, the former socialist mayor of Córdoba, Isabel Ambrosio, has filed a judicial complaint over fake posters with her image. According to Cadena SER, the complaint requests an investigation into whether a vehicle allegedly linked to the Córdoba City Council could have participated in the placement of those posters, a point that the local government denies.
The Córdoba municipal executive has rejected any involvement and has called the complaint absurd, according to the same information. The judicial route is thus open, separate from the agreement of the regional Electoral Board.
That point is important: the Electoral Board can order the removal for violation of electoral regulations, but the identification of individuals, vehicles, commissions, financing, or possible criminal liability requires another line of investigation.