Thursday, August 17, 2006
Proposal to allow more foreigners to vote
The Socialist Party and the United Left are to present a joint proposal to the Spanish Congress today with the objective of allowing regularized foreign nationals in Spain the right to vote in the municipal elections in 2007. In the Canary Islands, such measure could increase the electoral roll by 100,000.
The proposal is based on the application of article 13.2 of the Spanish Constitution, which guarantees the right to vote in municipal elections to foreigners on a reciprocal basis, meaning that foreigners legally resident in Spain should be able to vote here, when Spanish nationals resident in their country of origin are also able to vote in their municipal elections.
The key to how many more voters could be added as acceptable is in reciprocal agreements with foreign countries, which is some cases are signed, but not yet ratified and, others are still to be signed, but are under negotiation.
At the moment 93,422 people from the 25 countries of the European Union live in the Canary Islands, plus 1,561 from Norway, the only non EU country with which Spain has signed and ratified such an agreement. European citizens were able to vote in the last comicos (most apt Spanish word meaning elections) and in some cases put forward foreign candidates and parties formed by foreigners.
According to newspaper, El Pais, Spain has agreements pending, signed, but not yet ratified, with; Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Uruguay and Colombia. There are approximately 53,300 people resident in the Canary Islands from these countries. Spain could attempt to reach agreements before the 2007 elections with Morocco, Ecuador and Colombia - the three countries of origin of the largest number of foreign residents in Spain at national level. In the Canary Islands, there are 43,059 people from these three countries.
The total number of regularized foreign residents in the Canary Islands at January 1, 2006, was 225,700 people, 11.4% of the total population.
European citizens have been able to vote here for a number of years, however, in 2007, those from the 10 new states (Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia), who joined the EU in 2004 will be able to vote in Spain for the first time.
There are, nevertheless, many people, of various nationalities who will not be able to vote in 2007. Cases such as Cuba or China (which in the Canary Islands, adds almost 15,000 people), where reaching any such agreement is seen as impossible. It is also considered to be very complicated to reach any agreement with sub Saharan African countries.
Nevertheless, these figures show that the foreign vote could be a very important new aspect of the municipal elections in 2007. The recent process of regularizing previously illegal workers, who had been resident in the islands for many years, also increases the possibility that these persons will choose to participate.
El censo aumentaría en 100.000 si los extranjeros regularizados votasen en las municipales de 2007
