The Central Electoral Board has chosen not to open a new front with the Supreme Court and, after just over two hours of an extraordinary meeting, has agreed to comply with the high court’s mandate regarding the nationalizations obtained under the so-called grandchildren law. The body, however, has not adopted the Supreme Court’s criterion as its own and has not evaluated whether the people who have obtained nationality through this route and have been incorporated into the Census of Absent Residents (CERA) have done so correctly or whether, on the contrary, their registrations should be suspended.
Read more The Vatican claims the “prophetic” role of Leo XIV amid alarm over AI
The result of the deliberation was closer than usual, which shows the existing discomfort within the Board due to what some members considered an interference by the high court in competencies with direct consequences on the electoral census and on the situation of thousands of people who have obtained Spanish nationality or are still processing their registration.
All this after the Supreme Court partially upheld the precautionary measure requested by Iustitia Europa and Vox to suspend the electoral effects of the grandchildren law.
The Board has asked the Electoral Census Office to provide a breakdown of the census registration files affected by the precautionary measures and a complete report on the application of the rule and the postal vote of Spaniards residing abroad. It must also prepare an instruction with precise criteria to determine the municipality of electoral registration of the beneficiaries of the rule.
The Supreme Court’s requirement also affects consular registries. The JEC has requested the Directorate General of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs to order those responsible for consular registries to issue the necessary certificates to prove the link with exile of those who have obtained Spanish nationality through this route. This is a condition that the high court has considered decisive to maintain the electoral effects of these registrations.
Specifically, it must be proven that the beneficiaries were born outside Spain, from a father or mother, grandfather or grandmother who were originally Spanish and who had suffered exile for political, ideological, belief, or sexual orientation and identity reasons, with loss or renunciation of Spanish nationality.
Read more Who should win the Ballon d’Or, Mbappé or Lamine Yamal? Today on ‘Hay Partido’
The JEC has also established that, once it receives from the Census Office the complementary report and the proposed instruction directed to consular offices, it will examine both documents “immediately” to adopt the corresponding agreement.
The JEC changes its criterion
Last July, the JEC already ruled on various requests regarding the legality of the instruction issued in 2022 by the then Director General of Legal Security and Public Faith, Sofía Puente, to determine how the grandchildren law should be applied.
The arbitration body then agreed to request specific information from the Electoral Census Office about the application of the rule and warned that the determination of the electoral municipality in which each beneficiary is registered must be “sufficiently justified” if it does not correspond to their last residence in Spain.
At that time, the JEC rejected the precautionary suspension of the CERA preparation procedure requested by, among others, Vox, as it was not considered competent to rule on laws and regulatory provisions of their development.
In any case, the Board had already advanced on the matter by asking the Census Office to inform it about the application of the rule governing the updating of the census, especially whether the explanatory declarations of voters requesting registration in a municipality different from their last residence in Spain are examined.
Read more The PP is going to «Europeanize» the Ceuta crisis and believes that it «has worsened»
