5,510,713 Catalans are called to vote in elections for the Parliament of Catalonia on 27 September next.
The minister of Governance presents the channels for electoral information that the Government is making available to the citizens
The minister of Governance and Institutional Relations, Meritxell Borrās, presented today in a press conference the various channels that the Government has set up for information on the elections for the Parliament of Catalonia on 27 September next. "Our wish is to inform the citizens on the essential steps for voting and provide all the electoral information so that no citizen who wishes to vote is left without the opportunity", she explained.
"It must be easy for the voice of Catalonia to be expressed with normality and clarity on 27 September", she said. For this purpose, the Ministry of Governance has activated a multichannel system so that the citizens can have all the information they need on the processes for voting, whatever may be their situation.
Apart from the electoral web www.parlament2015.cat, the citizens can also be informed and sort out their queries on the steps related with the electoral process through the social networks, or using their mobile or fixed telephone.
"All Catalans are called on to vote and we must all be able to do it with liberty and normality", said the minister, "because democracy is there to solve problems, and never to obstruct solutions".
Voting from abroad and for people with visual disabilities
Meritxell Borrās explained that according to data from the provisional register, 5,510,713 Catalans will be able to vote in the forthcoming elections for the Parliament of Catalonia. 195,533 of these people are resident abroad and registered in the Register of Absent Residents (CERA). The minister noted that this is one of the sensitive groups, needing specific information on procedures in order to make their votes effective, and she recalled that in the elections for the Parliament of 2012, only 6.7% of Catalans registered in CERA voted and many people living abroad expressed misgivings on the difficulties they had encountered.
"It is clear that to be able to vote from abroad requires a combination of various factors and that they are not all under our control", said the minister. "First of all, there must be the will to vote, secondly, adequate information, and thirdly, the diligence and efficiency of the various facilities involved, whether the Spanish State embassies and consulates or the various postal services in each country".
The period for Catalans abroad to apply for a postal vote opened yesterday and closes on 29 August. In this sense, the minister noted that the Catalan Government can have an influence on information and anticipation when dealing with the processes. For this reason, during this period, the Government will provide all the necessary information on the processes for voting from abroad, by means of the electoral web -where there is a tutorial video explaining the procedure- through the web of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the European Union, and through the social networks.
Another sensitive group to which the Government wishes to provide all the information needed for voting is the group of people with visual disabilities. The minister explained that meetings have been held with associations of people with visual disabilities in order "to find ways of guaranteeing that they can exercise their right to vote in the same conditions as all the other citizens".
Thus, people with visual disabilities can request, from yesterday and until 31 August, through the free telephone line 900 400 012, documentation in Braille which allows the voting options to be identified with guarantees of independence and, therefore, of secrecy of the ballot. This documentation consists of explanatory instructions printed in Braille, a voting envelope and an envelope for each of the candidatures with an indication of the candidature in ink and in Braille and, inside each envelope, a ballot paper corresponding to the candidature indicated on the outside.
Multichannel information system
The minister gave details of the various channels that the Government has made available to the citizens to receive information on the elections. The principal channel, she said, is the web www.parlament2015.cat, which gives full information on the election day, frequent questions, regulations, composition of the electoral commissions, directory of commissions, statistical data, etc.
As a novelty on this occasion, the portal includes seven video tutorials on the following themes: members of the polling station committees, voting in person, voting by post, voting for Catalan voters living abroad permanently, voting for Catalan voters who are temporarily abroad, accessible voting for people with visual disabilities, and voting by people who are ill or with disabilities and cannot be moved. The web is in four languages: Catalan, Aranese Occitan, Spanish and English.
Another novelty mentioned by the minister is the possibility of using the Telegram instant messenger application for mobile devices to ask for information and settle queries about the elections. Also, as on other occasions, telephone queries will be attended to at 012 and the telephone attention centre set up by the Ministry of Governance and Institutional Relations with number 935 515 990.
Finally, the minister explained that this week will also see the start of the Government´s information campaign to the communication media which, on various supports (video, audio, press announcements and posters), will supply information on the electoral register, voting by post and for people with visual disabilities, and the election day.
5 August 2015