Expats urge Catalan government to guarantee they’ll get to vote in independence referendum

Several associations have sent a letter demanding that all doubts be cleared up

Núria Orriols / Xavi Tedó
3 min
Cues de catalans residents a Londres fent cua el 9 de novembre del 2014 per votar en el procés participatiu.

BarcelonaA message from Catalan communities abroad is putting pressure on the government. Yesterday a number of the ANC’s foreign chapters (1) (Brussels, Luxembourg and the US), plus a group called Catalans al Món (“Catalans in the World”), Quebec’s Catalan Club and the International Federation of Catalan Societies wrote a joint letter to the government —which this newspaper has read— demanding an end to the “ambiguity” about the vote by expats and urging the Catalan authorities to shed light on how residents abroad will get to cast their ballot in the independence referendum of October 1.

In their letter, which was sent to the Catalan ministries of Foreign Affairs and Administration, these groups urge the government to make a public announcement, without delay, confirming that the Catalan government’s expat census will indeed be used for the independence vote and warning that online voting will not be feasible because the electronic voting law is still being drafted in parliament and the online platform that would make it possible has not been commissioned.

In their note, the Catalan associations insist that “there can be no doubt that online voting won’t be an option” because “the bare minimum security and auditability standards” would not be met. Furthermore, these Catalan societies explicitly request that, since some expats are already making travel arrangements, the government clarifies that not all Catalans who decide to travel home for the referendum will be allowed to cast their ballot in Catalonia. They point out that none of the 220,000 Catalan expats on Spain’s CERA (the Spanish electoral roll of residents abroad) are registered in the electoral roll at home anymore and, therefore, they will not be allowed to vote in Catalonia on October 1. Only those who never registered with the CERA and still feature as a local resident at home will be allowed to cast their ballot in the referendum on independence. The expat associations demand a solution.

Núria Valls has been living in Germany for three years, but she chose to stay on the electoral roll back home so as to avoid problems when voting: “As I did in the non-binding independence referendum of November 9 and in other recent elections, I intend to travel to Catalonia in order to vote. I never registered as a resident in Germany so as to keep this option open”. Ricard Rius, an expat living in England, has done the exact same thing and will be taking two days off work to vote: “I moved to the UK two and a half years ago, when the independence process was already underway, and I deliberately chose not to register with the CERA because I knew that it would prevent me from voting in my hometown, back in Catalonia, and that the Spanish embassy in London would never allow me to vote there”. Vicenç Giralt is living in Mexico and he will also be flying back to Catalonia so as to vote in the referendum on independence.

None of the three expats have registered with the Catalan government’s census of residents abroad and, paradoxically, they could be among the lucky few who will get to vote on October 1. Being registered with Spain’s CERA is a prerequisite for joining Catalonia’s own expat census and the Catalan authorities are uncertain as to how they will guarantee that all Catalan foreign residents on the CERA actually get to vote. Alexis Vizcaíno regrets having registered with the Catalan census “believing that it would allow me to vote on October 1”. He hopes that expats won’t be “let down for the umpteenth time”.

A 200 km journey

Gemma Tarrés is the ANC’s Dublin coordinator and she registered for the non-binding referendum of November 9, 2014. She insists that expats should have the same right to vote as Catalans at home. “Together we would make up the second largest city in Catalonia”, she remarks. Xavi Sans has been living in Luxembourg for over five years and he also registered for November 9. Now he is hoping that he won’t meet quite as many hurdles to vote on October 1. “Back in 2014 I had to travel 200 km to the Catalan government’s office in Brussels. I guess I’ll have to do it again, if there’s no way around it”. Still, he would prefer to vote by post, as the Spanish embassy is not an option in a unilateral referendum on independence.

Washington resident Imma Caboti suggests that the Catalan authorities should send electronic ballots to those on the electoral roll and devise a way for them to send their vote to the Catalan government’s offices abroad or to a newly-created oversight body. This way online voting would be redundant, provided that an alternative courier system allowed for the postal service to be bypassed. From Miami, local resident Xavi Cortadellas says that “the historic frustration of being unable to cast a postal ballot is further compounded by the confusion regarding online voting on October 1”.

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Translator’s notes:

(1) The Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC) is one of the main pro-independence grassroots groups in Catalonia.

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