Spain to Hold Municipal and Autonomous Elections

On Sunday, May 28, in Spain, municipal and autonomous elections will be held to elect 12 regional governments and 8,000 municipal councils in votes that will allow the governing socialists and the opposition conservatives to gauge their strengths and plan their strategies before December’s general election.

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Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the right-wing president of the Madrid region, will be aiming to secure an absolute majority for the People’s party (PP), while Barcelona’s left-wing mayor, Ada Colau, aims to beat the regional branch of the Socialist party and the center-right Catalan pro-independence party.

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) currently holds the largest number of regional presidencies, nine in total: Aragon, Principality of Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Extremadura, Navarre and La Rioja. In addition, the actual president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, belongs to the PSOE.

According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, several municipal elections will be held, such as: elections for island councils of the Canary Islands, island councils of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, councils of Navarra, general councils of Aran, elections to local autonomous entities of Andalusia, Extremadura and the Valencian Community, among others.

According to the government, between May 1 and 9, all citizens entitled to vote should have received by mail a census card, which indicates the polling station and polling place where they should vote, or they can consult it in official government sites by means of personal information. Citizens also had the possibility to vote by mail if they were in Spain, and they could also vote from abroad; however, the deadlines to request it have already expired.

According to the government, people can only vote at their assigned electoral table. Furthermore, voting hours will be from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm local time. If after 8:00 p.m. there are still people in line to vote, they will be allowed to cast their ballots.

The ballots and envelopes for these elections will have different colors for their different votes, these being: white for the municipal elections, sepia for the autonomic elections, light green for the island council elections and sky blue for the island council elections of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, among other categories.