The foreign vote looks set to be decisive in Calvia in the local elections

Mayor Carlos Delgado knows that he must get an overall majority in next month's local elections if he wants to retain his job. The Partido Popular governs in Calvia in coalition with the Majorcan Unionists, but a pact between the two again would be very unlikely because of the major infighting over the last four years. So Delgado must improve on his results from the last local elections in 2003, which saw his party poll enough votes for ten councillors, the socialists nine and the Majorcan Unionists two. The fact that Delgado needs a majority or enough for eleven councillors makes the so-called foreign vote all the more important. This is one of the reasons why the Partido Popular have been working so hard to try and get non-Spanish Europeans to vote. However, in the last local elections barely 1'000 expatriates voted, a very small turnout. But things this time around are expected to be different. The three main parties, the Partido Popular, the PSOE and the Majorcan Unionists are all trying to court the foreign vote. The Partido Popular set-up the Foreigners Department at the council, which has been a big success. The socialists have said that they will retain it if they are elected to power, while the Majorcan Unionists have two Germans and one British resident as candidates on their election list.

Kate Mentink, is obviously the Partido Popular's high profile expatriate candidate and she will remain a councillor whatever happens, because she is number 4 on the Partido Popular's council list. There is a great battle ahead with the foreign vote making all the difference. While the Partido Popular were the first to realise the importance of the foreign vote the other two have started working long and hard to try and court it as well. An interesting battle is ahead.

P.S. I hear that there has been fireworks in the council as one of the people who works in the foreigner's department in the Calvia town hall has decided to stand for the Majorcan Unionists as a candidate. The announcement last week certainly caused a sensation!