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Date Published: 16/05/2023

Only 5 out of every 100 foreigners resident in Murcia can vote this May

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Across Spain, less than 10% of Brits have registered to vote in the municipal elections this year

Only 5 out of every 100 foreigners resident in Murcia can vote this May

Almost 15% of the population of the Region of Murcia, more than 226,000 people, are foreign nationals, which makes Murcia one of the autonomous communities in Spain with the highest proportion of residents from other countries.

Foreign citizens play a key role in the regional economy as consumers, taxpayers, property owners and workers, but this is not reflected when it comes to voting for democratically elected leaders.

Depending on their nationality, foreigners resident in Spain may vote in regional elections after a certain amount of time. For most nationalities, they must have been legally resident in Spain for at least 10 continuous years, or else have been born in Spain or have a Spanish parent.

When it comes to local municipal elections, such as the ones taking place in Spain this Sunday May 28, the net is cast wider. In these elections, some foreign citizens who are not Spanish nationals have the right to vote.

This includes residents of countries in the European Union and those from third countries with which Spain has bilateral agreements, such as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Colombia, Korea, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Trinidad & Tobago.

In order to vote, people from these countries must also have declared their intention to do so to the Electoral Census.

Since the Brexit agreement in 2020, British citizens resident in Spain must have been legally residing in the country for at least 3 years and have registered their intent to vote before January 15 this year.

From now on, they must re-register for every election they intend to vote in.

Any requests for postal votes must be registered by May 18.

Across Spain, there are around 400,000 UK nationals who are legal residents, but of these only 36,543 have registered to vote in the local elections this month – less than 10%.

In the Region of Murcia, the towns with the most foreign nationals registered to vote are Mazarrón, Abanilla, Los Alcázares, Pliego, San Javier and Aledo.

You may also like: Discover the Almeria towns where foreigners make up one third of all voters

In total, 10,759 foreigners from the European Union and countries with an agreement with Spain have expressed their intention to participate in the next local elections, which represents nearly 1% of the total number of voters, and only 4.7% of foreign residents in the Region. Of these, almost 8,000 are Europeans, and 2,805 belong to countries with a bilateral agreement, including the UK.

It's also worth noting that, while Moroccan citizens make up a large proportion of foreign nationals in the Region of Murcia, there is no bilateral agreement between Morocco and Spain to allow citizens of that country resident in Spain to vote in local elections.

That’s around 92,000 Moroccans resident in the Region who will not be able to choose their municipal leaders.

Also absent from the ballot are those from Ukraine, whose numbers have been boosted by the Russian invasion to 7,200 citizens, ranking sixth in absolute numbers in the Region of Murcia.

Also of interest: Brits living in Spain for more than 15 years to be given right to vote in UK elections

Image: Ayuntamiento de Totana

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