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Brits to keep local election vote post-Brexit: Spain is first EU country to strike deal
21/01/2019
BRITISH nationals living in Spain will be allowed to vote in their local council elections this May and continue to stand as candidates, with existing councillors permitted to keep their seats.
A deal between the UK and Spanish governments signed in Madrid today (Monday) comes as light relief for the estimated 300,000 Brits in Spain – according to UK government statistics, although Spain puts this figure at closer to 750,000 – who believed that after Brexit, they would no longer have a say in who spent their municipal taxes and what decisions were made in their home towns that could affect their daily lives.
More worrying still was the position for Brits who already hold a council seat – especially those high enough up candidate lists in ruling parties to be earning a partial or even full wage from their role – and who feared that they would automatically be forced to stand down.
Anyone not eligible to vote is not eligible to stand for election or hold a council or government seat, which is why foreign nationals, unless they hold joint citizenship, are not present on any government in Spain or the rest of the world.
In Spain, all EU citizens are automatically entitled to vote in local elections, but only Spaniards, either native or naturalised, are permitted to vote for their regional and national government representatives.
With Britain poised to leave the EU at midnight on March 29 this year, its nationals in Spain assumed they would lose the right to vote along with other freedoms they have enjoyed as residents in the country since Spain joined what was then the EEC in June 1985.
Spanish secretary of State for the EU, Marco Aguiriano, and the UK's secretary of State for Brexit Robin Walker shook on the voting right deal today after it was agreed by Spain's Council of Ministers on Friday.
The agreement will take effect immediately from Brexit day and does not need to be ratified in either Parliament.
Time was of the essence, since the local elections – as well as the regional and European Parliamentary elections – are due to take place this May, but any Brit who has not voted before only had until January 30 to register on the electoral census.
This census is not the same as the padrón, a municipal headcount register, which holds details of everyone living in a town and their address and which everyone is obliged, and has the right, to be on, even 'illegal' immigrants – doing so is essential for proving residence when applying for a mortgage, buying a car, registering with a health centre or school, switching driving licences and similar transactions, and entitles certain residents to council benefits including social service grants and discounts for the disabled, single parents and pensioners, where available.
Town councils encourage all residents, legal or otherwise but only permanent ones who spend six months or more of the year in the country, to register on the padrón, since the regional and national governments allocate funding per head for services and development, meaning each name on the padrón is an additional sum of money for the council.
Once on the padrón – a simple town-hall transaction requiring sight of proof of address and passport – anyone who has not voted before in a local council election can then put their name on the electoral census.
Although the official figure for Brits living in Spain is around 300,000, only about 90,000 are registered to vote – meaning up to 210,000, discounting anyone under the age of 18, could potentially have an influence on how their town is run but has not exercised it.
Spain is the first EU country to reach a deal with the UK enshrining the right to vote in local elections post-Brexit, after long negotiations which started in October.
Although only EU citizens have the automatic right to vote in town council elections in Spain, the Spanish government has a number of bilateral deals in place with third countries allowing their citizens to cast their ballots – the EEA nations of Norway and Iceland, the former colonies of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Perú, and a handful of others: the ex-Portuguese colony of Cabo Verde off the west African coast, plus New Zealand, South Corea, and Trinidad & Tobago.
The 2019 election agreement is an emergency deal as Brits in Spain are up against the clock, surrounded by uncertainty as the details of Brexit remain unknown just over two months from the deadline – but for future local elections, Spain will require British expats to show uninterrupted legal residence in the country for three years prior to polling day.
Effectively, anyone who is on the electoral census this year will be deemed to have proven this for voting purposes automatically ahead of the 2023 elections, although anyone moving to Spain from the UK between now and the end of January 2020 will have to show they have not been officially resident in any other country if they wish to do so in the next ones, and anyone who moves to Spain from February 2020 onwards will have to wait until the 2027 elections.
Brits currently on town councils in Spain have been given a guarantee of being able to stay in their seats until the end of teir term of office, and for the moment at least, they will be able to stand for election again on May 26.
Around 30 local governments in Spain have at least one British national with a council seat.
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BRITISH nationals living in Spain will be allowed to vote in their local council elections this May and continue to stand as candidates, with existing councillors permitted to keep their seats.
A deal between the UK and Spanish governments signed in Madrid today (Monday) comes as light relief for the estimated 300,000 Brits in Spain – according to UK government statistics, although Spain puts this figure at closer to 750,000 – who believed that after Brexit, they would no longer have a say in who spent their municipal taxes and what decisions were made in their home towns that could affect their daily lives.
More worrying still was the position for Brits who already hold a council seat – especially those high enough up candidate lists in ruling parties to be earning a partial or even full wage from their role – and who feared that they would automatically be forced to stand down.
Anyone not eligible to vote is not eligible to stand for election or hold a council or government seat, which is why foreign nationals, unless they hold joint citizenship, are not present on any government in Spain or the rest of the world.
In Spain, all EU citizens are automatically entitled to vote in local elections, but only Spaniards, either native or naturalised, are permitted to vote for their regional and national government representatives.
With Britain poised to leave the EU at midnight on March 29 this year, its nationals in Spain assumed they would lose the right to vote along with other freedoms they have enjoyed as residents in the country since Spain joined what was then the EEC in June 1985.
Spanish secretary of State for the EU, Marco Aguiriano, and the UK's secretary of State for Brexit Robin Walker shook on the voting right deal today after it was agreed by Spain's Council of Ministers on Friday.
The agreement will take effect immediately from Brexit day and does not need to be ratified in either Parliament.
Time was of the essence, since the local elections – as well as the regional and European Parliamentary elections – are due to take place this May, but any Brit who has not voted before only had until January 30 to register on the electoral census.
This census is not the same as the padrón, a municipal headcount register, which holds details of everyone living in a town and their address and which everyone is obliged, and has the right, to be on, even 'illegal' immigrants – doing so is essential for proving residence when applying for a mortgage, buying a car, registering with a health centre or school, switching driving licences and similar transactions, and entitles certain residents to council benefits including social service grants and discounts for the disabled, single parents and pensioners, where available.
Town councils encourage all residents, legal or otherwise but only permanent ones who spend six months or more of the year in the country, to register on the padrón, since the regional and national governments allocate funding per head for services and development, meaning each name on the padrón is an additional sum of money for the council.
Once on the padrón – a simple town-hall transaction requiring sight of proof of address and passport – anyone who has not voted before in a local council election can then put their name on the electoral census.
Although the official figure for Brits living in Spain is around 300,000, only about 90,000 are registered to vote – meaning up to 210,000, discounting anyone under the age of 18, could potentially have an influence on how their town is run but has not exercised it.
Spain is the first EU country to reach a deal with the UK enshrining the right to vote in local elections post-Brexit, after long negotiations which started in October.
Although only EU citizens have the automatic right to vote in town council elections in Spain, the Spanish government has a number of bilateral deals in place with third countries allowing their citizens to cast their ballots – the EEA nations of Norway and Iceland, the former colonies of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Perú, and a handful of others: the ex-Portuguese colony of Cabo Verde off the west African coast, plus New Zealand, South Corea, and Trinidad & Tobago.
The 2019 election agreement is an emergency deal as Brits in Spain are up against the clock, surrounded by uncertainty as the details of Brexit remain unknown just over two months from the deadline – but for future local elections, Spain will require British expats to show uninterrupted legal residence in the country for three years prior to polling day.
Effectively, anyone who is on the electoral census this year will be deemed to have proven this for voting purposes automatically ahead of the 2023 elections, although anyone moving to Spain from the UK between now and the end of January 2020 will have to show they have not been officially resident in any other country if they wish to do so in the next ones, and anyone who moves to Spain from February 2020 onwards will have to wait until the 2027 elections.
Brits currently on town councils in Spain have been given a guarantee of being able to stay in their seats until the end of teir term of office, and for the moment at least, they will be able to stand for election again on May 26.
Around 30 local governments in Spain have at least one British national with a council seat.
Related Topics
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