Who can and cannot vote in Spanish elections: first-time voter after 18 years living in Catalonia

On July 23, 2023, the snap general election, called by Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez after the local elections in May, will take place.

This general election will decide the next Prime Minister of Spain and sees 350 members of the Spanish congress, as well as 208 senators chosen by Spanish voters. 

Catalonia's four constituencies, Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona and Lleida, will elect a total of 48 MPs to the congress.

All those with Spanish citizenship are invited to vote and can do so from both inside and outside the country but must be registered with the Consular Register and the Register of Non-Resident Voters (CERA). The final registration date to be added to the electoral roll for this election period closed on March 1, 2023.

Unlike local and European elections, foreign residents from the European Union and nationals from the 13 countries that Spain has a bilateral voting agreement are not allowed to vote in general elections. 

While this is a big event for the entirety of Spain, there are some, like Santiago Carbajal, who have a reason to be even more excited. 

After living in Barcelona for 18 years after moving from Uruguay, Carbajal can finally vote in an election than that on a local or European level.

For Santiago, getting his citizenship and finally being able to contribute to the state of his country through voting on this larger scale is the pinnacle of exercising his rights as a resident. He confesses that "being able to vote is the last piece of the whole puzzle." 

"Personally, I do like politics, so I want to contribute my own vote and take part in the democracy," he tells Catalan News.

Michael Stewart is originally from Scotland but has been living in Barcelona for the last seven years. 

Although he will not be able to vote in the general election, he is just as curious and involved in the world of politics. 

“It would be nice to be able to capture that engagement with voting, but there are other ways to engage,” he told Catalan News, “I don’t think elections are the be-all end-all of people's political engagement. There are trade unions, activism, human rights activism, and things like that, that are equally important if not more important.”

Pawel Boros' position is very different. He is from Poland and has been in Barcelona for only a year and a half. 

"Although voting rights are very important, I do not feel entitled to vote in parliamentary elections in Spain yet," Boros says to Catalan News. 

Spanish nationals living abroad

While in the past, Spanish citizens living abroad needed to apply to vote, the Provincial Branches of the Electoral Register Office sent the necessary documentation by post to the registration address of each voter between June 17 and 24. Without any challenges to the candidates, voters should have received the ballot papers between June 28 and July 2. 

In-person voters residing abroad can vote at their closest Spanish embassy, consulate, or authorized center from July 15 to 20. 

Upon identification at these centers, they will find ballot boxes ready to go, with official ballot papers, voting envelopes, and the necessary computer facilities for downloading the necessary voting documents. 

Those abroad looking to vote by mail can send their vote in by registered post to their consular office between June 27 and July 18. The final day of receiving and registering votes will be July 21. 

Spanish nationals on holiday in Spain during the voting period can vote by mail while here. 

In Spain, voting by mail has become increasingly popular, so much so that the one million mark for mail-in applications was reached leading up to the local elections in May. 

Voters are required to request their mail-in ballot by July 13, and the last day to mail a vote in is July 20. 

Spain's citizenship awarding rate

Although Spain is typically a frontrunner for the most citizenships awarded in Europe each year, the large number of born-abroad residents is ever-growing, and so a large portion of Spain's population is without the right to vote in this upcoming election.

In Catalonia in 2022, 1,271,810, or 16.3% of the Catalan population, were found to be foreign residents. Only 181,581 of these foreign residents acquired Spanish nationality in 2022 and can vote. 

The typical ways to gain Spanish citizenship are citizenship by marriage, citizenship by descent, citizenship by option (i.e., through your children), and most commonly, citizenship by residency. 

10 years is the general rule for gaining citizenship by residency, but if you are a refugee, it takes 5 years, 2 years if you are from any Latin American country, Andorra, Equatorial Guinea, Philippines, or Portugal, and just 1 year for those married to a Spanish national or who are the children or grandchildren of Spanish citizens born in Spain. 

However, it is not always as easy.

"I began the process to get my citizenship back in 2014, after living here for 10 years, and then it suddenly stopped. My lawyer told me that the administration had probably lost some paper, and because of that, I had to start all over again," Santiago says. In the end, the whole process took him 8 years. 

"The only difference was that I could not vote. Before I got my citizenship, I had the right to education and health, I could work, and, of course, I had to pay taxes." 

Santiago was excited to finally get his citizenship in 2022 and be able to vote in Spain and Catalonia.