Once the fight to impose their respective story has started, the only thing in which the PSOE, PP, Vox, Sumar or Junts have agreed, among others after election night, has been to hold their breath until the CERA vote count is definitively resolved ( Electoral Census of Absent Residents) initiated yesterday and that the national leadership of the PP still trusts that it will be resolved in their favor so that, at least, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, “is not worth an abstention from Junts to be invested ”.
Despite the fact that the day started with up to nine seats with the possibility of modifying the majorities that were known on Sunday -172 seats for the block on the left by 171 for the one on the right-, eight of these unknowns were turning out to be innocuous one by one until, at the close of this edition, the only possible correction is that of Madrid, whose final count pointed to dawn.
The last battle of the electoral war is being fought, therefore, in the capital. Specifically, in the pavilion set up in the Casa de Campo, to the west of the city, where the respective members of each party are scrutinizing the ballots from each of the 72 ballot boxes in detail. All with the aim of defending any vote in favor or, on the contrary, annulling those that could add to the rival box. “Each one counts and we will fight until the last one,” predicted yesterday from the surroundings of Sumar a regional deputy who participated in this same count four years ago. And so it is being; as proof, the dilation of the process.
Apart from Madrid there were no surprises. Not even Girona and Tarragona, where the differences were very small, saw the results derived from last Sunday’s count altered. In the first, the PP started with a disadvantage of just 363 ballots compared to Junts. But his 275 votes were insufficient compared to his rival’s 336. While in the second, the PSC surpassed the formation of Carles Puigdemont by 658 votes to 200, although that bag of support was insufficient for the overturn.
Nor in Almería, Córdoba and the Balearic Islands, where the PSOE was the winner of the respective CERA vote recounts without enough difference to cause any alteration in the distribution of seats already established to relieve those of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the force with the most votes in the three constituencies.
And much less in Navarra, where the Socialists simply certified their partial victory on Sunday, or in Ourense, where the Popular Party did the same to confirm itself as the predominant force in all of Galicia.
Cantabria also had suspense due to the delay caused by three boxes that arrived when the count had already begun. The Provincial Electoral Board finally allowed them to be counted although the seat that dances is between PP and Vox. So it does not affect the struggle between blocks.
Finally, 233,688 residents abroad have exercised their right to vote, representing 10.04% of the 2.3 million Spaniards registered with CERA. This data represents an increase of 6.85% compared to the 2019 elections when 145,853 residents abroad from a census of 2,130,754 citizens exercised their right to vote.
An increase to which the disappearance of the vote system has contributed. This mechanism that forced voters to carry out cumbersome prior procedures that, in many cases, pushed those affected to give up exercising their right to vote.
The highest participation was registered in London, where 18.8% of the census voted –17,662 Spaniards–, ahead of Paris –15.17% for a total of 13,952 people– and Buenos Aires –6.22% of the census and 18,921 voters.
Once the scrutiny is over, the period will open for the representatives of the candidacies to present the claims they deem appropriate before their respective Provincial Electoral Boards. And once all the appeals have been resolved, which may ultimately reach the Central Electoral Board, or when the deadline for their presentation has elapsed without any having been presented, the proclamation of the candidates will be made, presumably on Monday. have elected results.
