'If you live in Barcelona, you decide in Barcelona': council encourages foreign residents to vote in local election

With only months to go until the next local election here in Barcelona, thousands of foreign residents probably still do not know that they too have the right to vote.

Unlike Catalan or Spanish elections, where only Spanish nationals over the age of 18 are allowed to vote, people with EU citizenship or from countries with bilateral voting agreements – that is to say, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Iceland, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom – can also have their say in local elections.

There are 150,422 people in Barcelona alone who fall into these two categories.

Residency period

Non-EU citizens from the 13 countries with agreements must have lived in Spain for a certain period of time before being able to vote.

Those from the UK must have lived in the country for at least 3 years by the day they register on the electoral census, while those from Norway must have lived in Spain for at least 3 years by the day of the election. People from the other 11 countries have to have resided here for at least 5 years by the time they register to vote. 

Barcelona council campaign

According to local authorities, only 14.9% of EU residents and 2.5% from countries with bilateral agreements were registered to vote in the 2015 election. In 2019, these figures increased to 21% and 4.2% respectively. 

Because of this, the Barcelona council is launching a new campaign called 'If you live in Barcelona, you decide in Barcelona' to encourage residents from the EU and the 13 other countries to register to vote in the May 28, 2022 election.

The campaign, which will be translated into 8 languages, will get the message out through social media, local press, and external actors, among others. The council will also be sending each and every foreign resident in the local 'padró' census who has the right to vote a letter and leaflet informing them of how to do so, while the www.barcelona.cat/comvotar informative website will be available from November 8. 

You can check out the Catalan News guide to voting in local elections as a foreign resident here.