Urgent. Register to vote now!

Expats have been reminded that they have until January 30 to register to vote in the May 25 European Parliament election.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) says there are more than 2.1 million EU citizens officially resident in Spain and therefore eligible to vote in the European election, but as of November only 322,878 were registered to do so. The rest will be unable to cast a vote unless they register by January 30.

The INE has mailed notification letters to 566,155 EU foreign residents who are registered as residents of Spain and who have not previously been sent such a notification ahead of a European election.

Those receiving a letter can register to vote by simply filling in the provided form and delivering it to the provincial delegation of the Oficina del Censo Electoral (OCE). Or, if the OCE already has their foreign resident number (NIE) on record, they can register online at http://sede.ine.gob.es.

People who have not received a notification letter but who are not registered to vote (have never filed a voter registration form) can do so at their local town hall. If they are already listed on the municipal ‘padrón’ census, they can directly file the voter registration; if they are not already on the ‘padrón’, they must first sign onto it before registering to vote.

By; Oliver McIntyre
Costa Del Sol News