It has done so because voting papers have still not arrived in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador and parts of China. Minister Meritxell Borràs asks for urgent measures to ensure that Catalans abroad can vote in the election on 27 September
The Minister of Governance and Institutional Relations, Meritxell Borràs, has today written to the Central Electoral Commission (JEC) asking it to reconsider its decision not to extend the deadline for postal voting from abroad. The Minister announced this in an interview on Catalunya Informació, in which she said that there are Catalans living in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador and parts of China who yesterday Monday 21 September had still not received their voting papers when the deadlines for postal voting are about to expire. As a result the Catalan Government has once more asked the JEC to take some kind of "urgent measures to ensure that Catalans living abroad can exercise their fundamental right to vote in the election on 27 September", bearing in mind that the deadlines for voting by post from abroad are today for voters permanently living abroad (CERA) and tomorrow, 23 September, for people temporarily abroad (ERTA).
The Catalan Government initially made the request on 9 September following the delay in sending the papers to voters living outside Spain due to challenges lodged against the announcement of candidatures with the Constitutional Court. As the Minister pointed out, this exceptional situation means that ballot papers for voters living abroad were only sent between 10 and 15 September when under normal circumstances they would have gone on 3 September, something "which makes voting abroad extremely problematic". The JEC rejected the request to extend the deadline on the grounds that the ballot papers had been sent within the legal deadline and there were no exceptional circumstances or unusual alterations to justify it.
The JEC also argued that electoral deadlines could not be extended on cost and operational grounds. However, the Minister remarked that "we understand that this deadline has been extended in the case of postal voting in Spain, and for example for specific groups such as military personnel who are overseas, so we cannot see why it cannot also be extended for Catalans living abroad."
The Government has also asked the JEC to put back the date for counting votes, at present set for 30 September, in order to ensure that votes cast arrive in time if the period for voting from abroad is extended.
The JEC has turned down two requests concerning voting by Catalans abroad
The JEC previously rejected the Catalan Government´s request on 26 August to extend the deadline for applying to vote by post for Catalans living abroad, which expired on 29 August. The Catalan Government argued on that occasion that the fact that it was a holiday period and the consequent reduction in working hours and staff numbers at some Spanish consulates had held up the procedures for requesting voting documents.