The Central Electoral Board (JEC) demanded this Thursday to strengthen controls over the assignment of the electoral municipality of Spaniards naturalized under the so-called ‘grandchildren law’ and ordered the preparation of an instruction that unifies the criteria used by the consulates to decide the district in which they are registered.
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The highest body of the Electoral Administration also asked the Electoral Census Office to clarify how this assignment is examined and supervised, while rejecting requests to halt the preparation of the Census of Absent Resident Voters (CERA) and dismissing Vox’s request to suspend postal voting from abroad.
The decision comes after various political parties, individuals, and entities sent letters to the JEC questioning the procedures for granting nationality derived from the eighth provision of the Democratic Memory Law and, especially, the effect that the increase in new Spaniards may have on the electoral census.
The Board clarifies, however, that it does not have the authority to rule on the conditions under which nationality is granted, the procedure used, or the legality of the regulation itself. Any challenge in this area, it warns, must be brought before the Constitutional Court or the contentious-administrative jurisdiction.
It also rejects requests to provisionally suspend the preparation of the CERA as a result of these naturalizations. The JEC reminds that the Constitution recognizes the right to vote for Spaniards residing abroad and that the Electoral Administration must apply the current regulations without replacing the legislator’s criteria.
The agreement does focus on the determination of the electoral municipality, a decision that sets the district to which each voter is assigned. The regulations establish that those who have resided in Spain must register in the municipality of their last residence, while those who have never lived in the country must do so in the one with the greatest personal or ancestral ties. If there are not enough elements, the consular office can determine it ex officio.
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These criteria have been applied since 2011, but doubts have now arisen due to the increase in new registrations in the CERA following the entry into force of the Democratic Memory Law and the specific way in which the municipality of registration of new voters is being decided.
In response to these claims, the Electoral Census Office sent a report on July 10 that, according to the JEC, proves the existence of mechanisms for updating, controlling, and tracing the census. However, it adds that from that document no “clear and decisive” ruling can be deduced on the legal correctness of the CERA update procedure or on the determination of the electoral municipality.
Therefore, the Board requests that the report be completed to clarify whether the declarations and documentation of those requesting to register in a municipality different from their last residence are examined, who performs that verification, and whether the criteria used by the consulates when the assignment is made ex officio are recorded. It also wants to know if these decisions are known or reviewed by the Census Office.
Additionally, it commissions the preparation of an instruction directed at consular offices to specify how the greatest personal or ancestral ties must be accredited, what documentation can be provided, and in which cases it is appropriate to set the municipality of registration ex officio. When the decision does not directly derive from the last residence in Spain, it must be sufficiently justified in the file.
In a separate agreement, the Central Electoral Board rejected Vox’s request to prevent postal voting from abroad as long as it does not offer, in the party’s opinion, the same guarantees as that cast from Spain.
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