Madrid (EFE).- Nearly 35.5 million citizens vote this Sunday for the representatives of some 8,100 municipalities in Spain in a very close election in which 12 autonomous governments are also renewed, in addition to the assemblies of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, island councils and other territorial entities.
Some highly contested elections, which could be the prelude to the next general elections in December and in which political change is at stake in up to seven regions.
The key places in this electoral map are the Valencian Community, Aragon, Castilla La Mancha, La Rioja, Melilla, Cantabria or the Canary Islands, while the cities of Barcelona, Seville and Valencia could also be at risk of change.
The latest polls open the door to the PP in the Valencian Generalitat with the support of Vox, although sources from the Executive see the re-election of Ximo Puig as clear.
In some autonomies, the Socialists will also depend on how their current coalition partners are doing, such as Aragon, La Rioja, the Balearic Islands or the Canary Islands, where they govern with the left.
After yesterday’s day of reflection in which the political leaders took the opportunity to relax and be with family or friends, take walks, play sports or visit the Madrid Book Fair, today they will be seen casting their ballots.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will finally vote at the Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo in Madrid very early in the morning, while the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will also vote in the capital -almost at noon- in Ramiro de Maeztu College.
The 23,000 polling stations through which 215,000 ballot boxes have been distributed will be open until 8:00 p.m., and as soon as they close, the television stations that make up the Federation of Autonomous Radio and Television Organizations (FORTA) will broadcast a poll carried out at the ballot box .
At 10:30 in the morning, the Secretary of State for Communication, Francès Vallès, and the Undersecretary of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, will offer the first press conference from the IFEMA-Madrid National Data Center to report on the process of opening of the polling stations, the constitution of the tables and possible incidents.
At 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. they will again report on the progress on the levels of participation and it is expected that the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the Government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, will appear at a conference press at around 10:30 p.m. to provide the data on the provisional results, depending on how the scrutiny has progressed.
The National Data Center has accredited about 160 journalists from more than 40 media outlets, 12 of them foreigners.
In these elections, the twelfth municipal elections, almost 1.8 million young people between the ages of 18 and 23 will cast their vote for the first time, 5% of the total census and 200,000 more than in the last general elections held in 2019.
In addition, the number of foreigners residing in Spain who can go to the polls today is about 415,000.
With a cost of 204 million euros, elections are held that could turn the political table of city councils such as Valencia, led by Joan Ribó from Compromís, or Barcelona by Ada Colau (Barcelona en Comú) upside down. The results will depend on a handful of votes and the pacts will be key.
In Barcelona, the PSC candidate Jaume Collboni could wrest the key to the consistory from Colau in a dispute in which ERC could be decisive in tipping the balance, while in Seville the union PSOE-Con Andalucía and PP-Vox also offers a very similar result, according to the latest CIS polls, and in Valladolid the sum of the popular with Santiago Abascal’s party could remove the mayoralty from the PSOE.
At the moment the panorama shows that the PSOE governs in 10 communities of the 12 in contention (alone or in coalition): Asturias, Castilla La Mancha, Extremadura, Aragón, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the Valencian Community, Navarra, La Rioja and Cantabria, in addition of the autonomous city of Melilla, while the PP does so in Madrid, Region of Murcia and in the autonomous city of Ceuta.
Almost 100,000 agents of the State Security Forces and Corps will monitor the development of this day that puts an end to an electoral campaign that has been marked by the controversial list of Bildu candidates and by the complaints of buying votes by mail.