Spain's Electoral Board questions legality of overseas voter census update under 'ley de nietos'

Background

The controversy stems from the 2022 Law of Democratic Memory, whose eighth additional provision allows descendants of Spaniards exiled during the Civil War to recover Spanish nationality. A subsequent ministerial order, which experts consider ambiguous, opened the door to descendants of economic migrants as well. The government says it has already granted nationality to more than 500,000 people through this process, with between 2.4 and 2.6 million applications still pending. As of 1 June 2026, the census of Spaniards resident abroad (CERA) stood at 2,715,986, representing 7.1% of the total electoral roll.

JEC questions legal basis

On 16 July 2026, the Junta Electoral Central (JEC) issued an agreement that directly contradicts the government's defence of the procedure. The JEC had asked the Electoral Census Office for a report on the criteria used to register new voters in municipalities. The conclusion, according to the JEC, is that "from said report no clear and decisive pronouncement can be deduced on the legal correctness of the CERA update procedure." The board therefore requested additional information and instructed the Census Office to issue more precise guidelines to consulates, so that the process becomes more robust.

The determination of the electoral registration municipality must be sufficiently motivated in the file when it does not result directly from the last residence in Spain, so that the concurrence of the applicable criteria can be verified and transparency, objectivity and equality in the formation of the electoral roll can be guaranteed.

Political fallout

The leader of the opposition Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, seized on the JEC's decision to claim his party was right to demand more guarantees. Speaking at an event in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he said the census cannot be altered "without sufficient motivation, without sufficient verification and without sufficient oversight." Feijóo accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of "electoral engineering" to secure new voters, adding that the irresponsible thing is not to doubt Sánchez's intentions but "not to do so after everything we have seen he is capable of."

We were right to question the decency of Sánchez.

The PP demanded that no further additions be made to the electoral roll until the new guarantees requested by the JEC are applied. The party described the board's move as "good news" and urged the government to follow the path set by the "highest body of the electoral administration, made up of Supreme Court magistrates and prestigious professors."

The CSIF civil servants' union, which had filed one of the complaints, welcomed the decision and reiterated its call for an urgent reinforcement of consular staff. The union warned that the surge in nationality applications is causing an excessive workload that could lead to a collapse in consular offices. CSIF also stressed the need for "precise rules" to determine the municipality of greatest attachment, so that electoral assignment does not rest solely with the consular officer.

Provincial disparities and electoral weight

The CERA's weight varies dramatically across provinces. While the overseas vote accounts for 7.1% of the total census nationally, it ranges from just 2% in Ciudad Real to 30% in Ourense. Vox's economy spokesperson, José María Figaredo, had earlier warned that directing a few thousand votes to provinces where the last seat swings between parties could guarantee the PSOE several seats. The JEC's demand for motivated municipality assignments directly addresses this concern.

What comes next

The JEC has asked the Electoral Census Office to detail how the objectivity and homogeneity of the criteria used by consulates can be reinforced. It also wants an instruction sent to all consulates specifying the procedure for registering new voters, changing addresses, and documenting the "greatest attachment" to a particular municipality. The board may issue a further ruling once the additional information is provided. For now, the political battle over the integrity of the overseas vote is set to intensify ahead of any future elections.