Córdoba (EFE).- Water and portable refrigeration are the main measures that the administrations and political parties will take to combat the heat in polling stations and voting centers on 23J, since there is no regulation on the protocol of action in the face of high temperatures on election days.
The month of July of last year, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), was the “warmest in Spain since there are records”, with an average temperature of 25.6 degrees, 2.7 degrees higher than the average for this month since the beginning of the historical series in 1961. And the Sevillian town of Morón de la Frontera set the temperature record, registering 46 degrees on July 24.
According to Aemet, July 2022 was “extremely warm throughout mainland Spain”, except in areas of northern Galicia, eastern Cantabria, the Ebro valley and the southeast of the peninsula, where it was very warm.
However, “thermal anomalies” were recorded that reached 4 degrees above normal in the center and south of Castilla y León, the Community of Madrid, Extremadura, western Castilla-La Mancha and in points in the interior of Andalusia and the Pyrenees.
Faced with this situation, only Andalusia has regulated the prohibition of holding its regional elections in the months of July and August due to high temperatures, and it is the different municipalities of Spain that are looking for formulas to try to combat the heat in the electoral centers, safeguarding the best possible conditions to the members of the polling stations and to the voters.
In this way, in the north of Spain, where temperatures are usually more pleasant, “extraordinary” measures have not been planned.
The provincial boards of the Basque Country have not yet received any recommendation to alleviate eventual heat episodes, while in Cantabria the Ministry of Health has not planned any measure until certain thresholds are reached, which will be estimated by Aemet with its warnings for high temperatures .
water and fans
In areas where the incidence of heat may be greater, such as the Levante or the southwest of Spain, measures are already being taken that basically consist of equipping voting centers with “fans” or “portable refrigeration” and enabling “deposits of water”, as is the case of Palma City Council, in the Balearic Islands, where equipment will be installed in centers that do not have air conditioning.
For its part, in the Valencian Community, the Torrent City Council (Valencia) has bought 61 fans for schools and has commissioned the Works Brigade to distribute water throughout the day to all the members of the tables, in addition to organize a special Civil Protection and Red Cross device that will act in the event of any emergency related to high temperatures.
In Extremadura, the municipalities of Badajoz, Mérida, Cáceres and Don Benito are analyzing the climatic conditions of the polling stations to decide if they adopt any measure, such as renting refrigeration equipment, to mitigate the heat in these spaces on the electoral day of the 23rd of July, while in Villanueva de la Serena it has been decided that the polling stations be installed in those classrooms that have air conditioning.
In Andalusia, the Córdoba City Council has put out to tender the installation of more than 70 refrigeration equipment in voting centers that do not have adequate air conditioning and the parties also plan to provide them for their auditors and proxies.
A measure that other Andalusian consistories, such as Malaga, are already studying, waiting to have more specific and reliable forecasts on the temperature on the day of the electoral appointment.
In this sense, in the province of Cordoba, according to sources from the electoral board consulted by EFE, no concrete or official measures have been established in this regard, although they stress that the administrations must ensure the health of all participants in the electoral process and The cases that arrive by virtue of the weather alerts for 23J will be studied.