TWO years on from the brutal murder of the mayor of Polop de la Marina (Alicante), a suspect has finally been arrested.

Friends and family members of Alejandro Ponsoda were joined in their campaign this autumn on the second anniversary of the mayor’s fatal shooting by townspeople clamouring for the case to be reopened.

The court in charge of the case had closed its file, due to lack of evidence.

But a man was arrested by the Guardia Civil on Friday, police sources report.

This said, they are not yet certain that the murder is resolved and say the investigation remains open.

Ponsoda died on October 27, 2007, in Alicante General Hospital, eight days after he was shot when he got out of his car in front of his home in Xirles, a hamlet in the outskirts of Polop, where he had been mayor since 1995.

A popular candidate to head up the village of 2,400 inhabitants – including many British expatriates and residents from all over Europe – he had repeatedly been voted into office by an almost overwhelming majority at every election.

In fact, Ponsoda’s career in local politics had started when he was little more than a child, since he was taken on as an admin assistant at the local council after leaving school at 15.

It was not until 1991, however, that the deceased stood for mayor as head of the PP party, but it would not be until the following local elections that he was voted in.

At the time of his murder, Ponsoda’s two daughters were aged 25 and 27, and one of them was pregnant when her father died.

The identity of the suspect has not yet been revealed, and police are still baffled as to the possible motives of the killing.