2012/11/22

Tremosa: Spanish authorities are making the voting process in the forthcoming election practically impossible for 100,000 Catalans




I want to denounce an extremely serious fact: the Spanish authorities are making the voting process in the forthcoming Catalan election practically impossible for more than 100,000 Catalans abroad.

I have myself received a large amount of emails from Catalans abroad complaining that they have not been able to vote.

Some people have had to travel very long distances in order to get their ballot papers. Many others were told that their voting papers had been sent by mail, but they haven’t yet received them – and today was the last day to send them back.

For this reason I and other Catalan MEPs have tabled a parliamentary question in order to bring these serious facts to attention. We have asked the European Commission to start an investigation about the difficulties that many Catalans abroad have encountered in order to exercise their right to vote on November 25th.

The right to vote is protected by the Spanish Constitution as well as by the articles 39 and 40 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. These articles cover local elections as well as European elections. But in Spain the electoral system is regulated by a specific law which makes stipulations for all kinds of elections, be them national, regional, local, or European, and regulates the voting process for Spanish citizens who reside in other countries. The difficulties met by Catalan citizens abroad to vote in Sunday’s election are a direct result of the provisions of Spanish electoral law. It is therefore quite obvious that something has to be done in order to avoid this situation occurring again. For this reason we are asking the European Commission to intervene.

What is the use of so many Spanish embassies and consulates if Catalans abroad cannot vote in these crucial elections?

Even more serious is the possibility that we might never know the specific circumstances of these irregularities because of an unacceptable lack of transparency on the part of the Spanish authorities. Indeed, we won’t even know the percentage of votes from abroad.

This is a really serious matter. Catalan people have only their vote in order to change their future. Yet thousands of Catalan citizens may not exercise their rights because Spain is preventing them from doing so through administrative incompetence, or worse.

I cannot judge intentions–but I can judge facts. I don’t know whether this unacceptable failure on the part of the Spanish authorities to guarantee the exercise of the right to vote is due to laziness or bad faith. This is actually immaterial. What matters is that a grave violation of fundamental rights is taking place, and it must be brought to the attention of the international public.

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