The electoral administration ensures the transparency and objectivity of the electoral process together with the principle of equality. It is made up of the Central Electoral Commission, the provincial electoral commissions, the area electoral commissions and, if need be, the regional electoral commission, and the polling station committees.
The Central Electoral Commission
The Central Electoral Commission is the permanent body which acts as arbiter and moderator of the whole electoral process, followed by the provincial and area electoral commissions.
The duties of the Central Electoral Commission in the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia 2015 include the following:
- it oversees and approves model records for polling station committees and electoral commissions
- it oversees and approves the handbook for members of polling station committees
- it monitors the data and information from published polls
- it directs and supervises the operations of the Electoral Roll Office
- it gives binding rulings on queries from the provincial electoral commissions
- it is the body where political parties appoint their general representatives, the representatives of lists and general administrators
TOPThe provincial electoral commissions
The provincial electoral commissions have the following powers in the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia 2015:
- handle the submission and announcement of lists
- rule on complaints filed against the delimitation of sections, polling stations and polling station committees by the provincial office of the Electoral Roll Office
- accept the nominations of list administrators by the representatives of lists and report them to the Central Electoral Commission
- distribute the free party political broadcasts on public media
- complete the appointment of agents and observers
- carry out the general count
- give binding rulings on queries from the area electoral commissions
The duties of the area electoral commissions
The duties of the area electoral commissions are as follows:
- ensure that each polling station committee has the supplies and materials needed for voting
- supervise the appointment of members of the polling station committees by local councils
- distribute the sites available for the placement of posters, banners and flags along with official premises and public places for election campaign meetings
- complete the appointment of agents and observers
- deal with queries from voters
The polling station committees
The polling station committees are bodies made up of citizens chosen by lot which are responsible for the ballot boxes and counting the votes. They supervise the voting process, make sure it goes smoothly and count the ballots.
A polling station committee consists of three people on the committee´s electoral roll: 1 chair and 2 members.
In principle there is one polling station committee for each election section. An electoral section can be divided into more than one polling station committee if it contains a large number of voters or the population is very scattered, provided that the number of voters assigned to a polling station committee is not less than 200. The Electoral Roll Office sets the geographical area for each polling station committee based on proposals from local councils.