Spain’s Electoral Roll Office won’t extend period to vote from abroad

Barcelona (CNA).- The Spanish body agreed this Thursday to extend the postal vote but only for those who live in Spain, and not for those Catalans who live abroad. The Catalan Minister for Public Administration, Meritxell Borràs, admitted to being “very surprised” with a decision which she described as “contradictory”. Borràs claimed that the Electoral Roll Office is committed to “not facilitating” the vote of those who live abroad, as the Catalan government repeatedly requested that it extend the deadline for this sector. According to the data, more people applied for postal vote this year than in the last Catalan elections, in 2012. Compared to last time around, 4,000 more Catalans living abroad requested the postal vote on the 16^th of September, the day before the deadline.  

Now, all those Catalans living in other areas of Spain will have time to send their vote until the 24^th of September, one day after the initial deadline. “We are very surprised by this negative answer” emphasised the Catalan Minister for Public Administration, Meritxell Borràs. “It is the second time that they have denied an extension of the voting deadline for those who live abroad”, she lamented. “On the contrary, they accepted to extend the deadline for those who live outside of Catalonia but within Spain”, she stated. Borràs said the decision is “absolutely contradictory” and envisaged the facilitating of the vote for everyone, “and everyone means everyone”, she pointed out.

According to Borràs one of the arguments of Spain’s Electoral Roll Office is that the Catalan government had enough time to send the ballots to the voters abroad. “It is true, but it is also true that we sent them later than we would have liked” the Minister commented, referring to the contestations that some parties made, which impeded an earlier delivery of the ballots, “we sent them almost on the deadline”, she added.

“The goal appears to be clear: to not facilitate things for citizens living abroad. We regret it so much”, she stated and highlighted that the number of people who requested the postal vote from abroad increased compared to 2012’s data.

On the 16th of September, just one day before the deadline for requesting the postal vote, 70,732 people did so, which is 12% higher than for the 2012 elections. Regarding the vote abroad, the total increase is even higher, 21%, with a total of 21,394 requests. More than half of these were made by citizens originally from the Barcelona area.