(About the reform of article 75 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime)
The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy of Language defines mystery as something arcane or very hidden, that cannot be understood or explained or as a very reserved business. And that is what happens with the exercise of the vote by people residing abroad and, in general, with the vote by mail. In fact, the vote of people residing abroad is regulated among the provisions for voting by correspondence found in articles 72 to 75 of Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, on the General Electoral Regime.
In the Official State Gazette of October 3, 2022, Organic Law 12/2022, of September 30, reforming Organic Law 5/1985, of June 19, of the General Electoral Regime, for the regulation of of the exercise of the vote by Spaniards living abroad. It is the third time that the reform of this issue has been undertaken and, of course, it will not be the last.
The truth is that our foreign legion It’s not exactly low. According to the data collected in the Statistics of the Register of Spaniards Resident Abroad (PERE) as of January 1, 2022, the Spanish population residing abroad amounted to 2,742,605 people, which represented an increase of 87,882. in relation to January 1, 2021 (https://www.ine.es/prensa/pere_2022.pdf). If we take into account that the data from the National Institute of Statistics itself estimate the population of our country for the first day of the year 2022 at 47,432,805 people, the conclusion is that 5.78% of those who have Spanish nationality live outside of our borders (https://www.ine.es/prensa/cp_e2022_p.pdf). And the truth is that these citizens do not receive the same treatment in relation to their right to participate in the elections.
With the reform that is now being carried out, it is intended to resolve this situation and, for this, a series of changes are introduced.
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