Ruth del Moral |
Madrid (EFE) all voters who go to a post office is strongly raised again.
Not only because it is expected that this type of vote could increase due to the fact that many citizens may be on vacation, but also because of the need to avoid repeating episodes that cloud the new electoral campaign that begins on the night of July 7.
However, reinforcing this procedure with the new requirement to show the ID when the ballot is sent would de facto reform the General Electoral Regime Law (LOREG) and, with the Cortes Generales dissolved, this option seems impossible.
Faced with this situation, some political parties turn their eyes to the Central Electoral Board (JEC), the highest administrative authority, which could automatically approve an instruction in this regard, although the body itself has stressed in some of its resolutions that its function is not that of legislating.
The precedent of Melilla
The president of the PP of Melilla, Juan José Imbroda, has announced that all the resolutions of the Electoral Board related to Melilla are still in force and that therefore the DNI or an official document accrediting it will be requested on July 23 when the votes by mail are address the polling stations of this autonomous city.
The JEC confirmed this personal identification of the voter on May 18 in response to the request made by the Ministry of the Interior to demand the identification of the voter at the time of depositing the vote at the Post Office.
Could the JEC extend it to all of Spain?
The JEC recently clarified in another resolution that it cannot modify the LOREG and that it is the Courts or the Government that must do so.
“The electoral administration must apply the procedures provided in the electoral legislation as long as they are not modified by the legislator. Any modification that is wanted to be made must be directed to the Legislative Chambers or to the Government, as holders of the power of the legislative initiative, ”he said on May 25.
However, sources close to the electoral authority open the door for a new instruction to be considered for July 23.
As the highest electoral authority in charge of guaranteeing the transparency and objectivity of the electoral process, it can make institutional declarations, issue mandatory instructions to the Provincial Electoral Boards or exercise disciplinary power.
The role of the courts
Any reform of the LOREG supposes a difficult parliamentary procedure, as some deputies who negotiated the last reform of this law that suppressed the requested vote of Spaniards residing abroad to facilitate their right to vote reminded EFE.
And it is that although the LOREG has been reformed more than 20 times, any change, no matter how small, needs the maximum consensus since it is an Organic Law that requires an absolute majority in its modifications, and in many cases the parties take advantage to introduce claims that have nothing to do with the main issue.
The truth is that the electoral advance has left a possible reform in the air, since the dissolution of the Cortes Generales has also declined the subcommittee that had been in charge of retouching the law and that began by suppressing the requested vote.
Some parties believe that there could have been time to process a reform before December, the date on which the general elections were initially scheduled, but others stress that understanding during the electoral period would have been very difficult.
However, on the table of the subcommittee, according to one of the deputies that compose it, there were no far-reaching reforms, but very specific changes, such as modifications to deadlines, for example in the presentation of candidacies.
Nothing to modify the essence of the law.