Catalan Government specifies "there is no deadline" for November's vote and insists it will take place

Barcelona (ACN).- The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, emphasised this Tuesday that "there is no deadline" to decide whether the self-determination consultation vote will take place, which is scheduled for the 9^th of November but which has been temporarily suspended by the Constitutional Court. The previous day, Homs had stated that between the 13^th and 15^th of October a decision should be made regarding some of the preparations for the vote, since they cannot be put in place the day before opening the polling stations and require a minimum amount of time. Such a statement was widely interpreted as the 15^th of October being the deadline for deciding whether the 9^th of November self-determination vote would take place with enough democratic guarantees or not. Homs' statement caused an upset reaction by the left-wing independence party ERC, which shares a parliamentary stability agreement with the governing centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU. On Tuesday Homs himself specified that "there is no deadline" as such and that the consultation vote on Catalonia's future will take place on the 9^th of November. However, the Catalan Minister admitted that the timing for some preparations will have to be "readjusted". Besides, the Catalan Government appointed the members of the 7 territorial electoral bodies that will supervise November's vote, which were elected over the weekend by the independent Control Commission. Those territorial sub-commissions as well as all the Catalan Government's registers have also started to receive registration petitions from foreign-nationals for them to be able to vote on the 9^th of November. The Catalan Government argued that they are legally obliged to receive such petitions, but they also acknowledged that "receiving is not the same than processing", suggesting that the voter register for foreign nationals would not be set yet. Therefore, Catalan authorities are using all the ambiguity and legal interpretations of the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension of the consultation vote to carry on paving the road towards the 9^th of November, although at a slower pace while carefully considering each step in order not to openly challenge Spain's legality. Meanwhile, the Spanish Government insist that all those actions and secondary decisions cannot be adopted and are taking them to the Constitutional Court, which could or could not say anything about them this week.

Slowly and ambiguously, the Catalan Government is carrying out steps towards the 9^th of November's self-determination consultation vote, adapting each new move to the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension and using the legal interpretation of this measure in its favour. The legal services of the Catalan Government believe that some minor measures and decisions regarding November's non-binding vote can be adopted if they do not have a direct effect. In addition, since the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension does not mean that the vote is illegal (it is just a cautionary measure while the Court is reaching a definitive decision), Catalan authorities argue that some preparations have to be ready for being launched if the Court were to lift the suspension in the coming days and authorise November's vote. Otherwise, the consultation vote could not take place on the scheduled day with enough democratic guarantees, despite it potentially having been declared legal by the Court.

No deadline and no quarrel with the ERC

On Tuesday, after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Homs stated that "the consultation vote is viable and will take place on the 9^th of November". He denied that there is a "deadline" to decide whether it takes place or not. He said so after the day before he stated that between the 13^th and 15^th of October a decision would have to be made regarding some preparations in order to hold the consultation vote with full democratic guarantees. "People will vote", the Catalan Minister emphasised on Tuesday. "There is no deadline; there are some timings that will have to be readjusted" in order to ensure the vote takes place, he added.

Furthermore, Homs stressed he is convinced that political unity around the 9^th of November vote among a two-third majority of the Catalan Parliament will be kept. In this vein, he denied any quarrel with the ERC, after he had talked about making decisions by mid-October. Homs said that the Catalan Government's commitment is to make sure that Catalans can vote on the 9^th of November, avoiding "all the obstacles" put forward by the Spanish authorities, who are vetoing the non-binding consultation vote that aims to find out the citizens' opinion about Catalonia's political future.

All registers start to receive vote petitions from foreign-nationals

In addition, the Catalan Government has taken another small step towards the 9^th of November. On Tuesday, Catalonia's Official Journal (DOGC) published the names of the members of the 7 territorial sub-commissions that will supervise the correct development of consultation votes throughout Catalonia. Those members had been appointed by the recently-created and independent central Control Commission over the weekend, but they had not been validated by the Catalan Government on Monday afternoon. However, the Catalan Government did so on Monday evening, taking a small step towards the consultation vote through a free interpretation of the Constitutional Court's temporary suspension. These 7 territorial sub-commissions, formed by independent and prestigious professionals, will receive the early vote from people who are not able to cast their ballot on the 9^th of November. They will do so between the 20^th and the 25^th of October. In addition, these sub-commission can also receive registration petitions by foreign-nationals.

Furthermore, on Tuesday the Catalan Government authorised all its registers to receive registration petitions from foreign-nationals living in Catalonia, on top of the 7 territorial sub-commissions. EU nationals who have been living in Catalonia for at least one year can vote on the 9^th of November, as well as the non-EU nationals with a 3-year-minimum residence period. Initially, foreign-nationals could only register in the territorial sub-commissions, but now the Catalan Government argues that they are legally obliged to receive any petition in any of its registers, which are located in many of its office buildings throughout Catalonia. However, Government sources refused to clarify what is being done with those petitions, whether they are being sent to the 7 territorial sub-commissions to already begin building the voter register or whether they are simply being stored waiting for the Constitutional Court to lift the temporary suspension. Despite this calculated ambiguity, Catalan Government sources stated that "receiving [petitions] is not the same than processing" them, suggesting that the actual voter register would not have been put together yet.