Voting at the 2019 elections in Palma, Mallorca

Voting at the 2019 elections in Palma. | Miquel À. Cañellas

Andrew EdePalma20/03/2023 08:52
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At the municipal elections on May 28, 16,615 foreign residents in the Balearics will be able to vote. This is the number of foreign residents who have registered to vote. They are citizens of the European Union or of countries with which Spain has reciprocal arrangements - the UK is one; others include Norway and New Zealand.

Foreign residents are only eligible to vote in the municipal elections; they will not be able to have a vote for the Balearic parliament or the island councils. In certain municipalities, e.g. Calvia and Pollensa, the foreign vote can be of particular importance because of the number of foreign residents.

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For these elections, 32,245 Balearic citizens who live abroad will benefit from an easier system of voting. In 2019, the number of eligible voters was over 22,000, but only 728 actually voted. The Spanish government under the Partido Popular had made the system so complicated that people didn't bother.

The census of Spanish citizens residing in the Balearics who have the vote is 793,123.

The foreign population of the Balearics, as of the first of January 2022, was 222,017. For voting purposes, many of these would be ineligible either because there are no reciprocal arrangements or because of age.