A total of 5,554,394 citizens will be able to vote in the election for the Parlament de Catalunya on 21 December

A total of 5,554,394 Catalans are called to participate in the election to the Parliament of Catalonia on Thursday, 21 December, according to data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), an increase of 0.79% compared to the 2015 election. Of these, 5,328,013 people live in Catalonia and 226,381 are registered in the Census of Citizens Resident Abroad (CERA). For the first time after reaching the age of majority, 136,444 voters will be able to exercise their right to vote in the election to the Parliament of Catalonia.

 

As of today, the number of Catalans living abroad who have applied to vote and whose application has been accepted, is 39,521, 81.53% more than in the 2015 election. On the other hand, while the number of votes from abroad has grown, mail-in ballot applications from within the Spanish State has decreased with respect to 2015, with a total of 78,876 applications accepted, versus 107,421 in 2015.

 

Number of voters registered by constituency:

 

Constituency	Residents in Cataluña	Residents abroad	Total registered
Barcelona	3,981,177	175,082	4,156,259
Gerona	499,730	18,151	517,881
Lérida	297,860	16,053	313,913
Tarragona	549,246	17,095	566,341
Total	5,328,013	226,381	5,554,394

 

Source: INE

 

The electoral procedure

 

This Thursday, 2,680 electoral premises in 947 municipalities across Catalonia will open at 9 am, with 8,247 polling stations, 5,885 of which are in Barcelona, ​​825 in Gerona, 534 in Lérida and 1,003 in Tarragona. These stations will be staffed, with all due guarantees, by a team made up of 24,741 designated officers —with 49,482 alternates— and 3,889 representatives of the Public Administration, apart from representatives and auditors from the various political parties.

 

Polling stations and electoral premises:

 

Constituency	Premises	Sections	Stations
Barcelona	1,600	3,588	5,885
Gerona	393	531	825
Lérida	318	387	534
Tarragona	369	541	1,003
Total	2,680	5,047	8,247

 

Source: INE

 

Concerning security, according to data provided by the Ministry of the Interior, 12,321 officers of the regional police —Mossos d'Esquadra— will provide security to 2,680 electoral premises, along with municipal police officers from across the region. 600 polling stations will be covered exclusively by 1,834 municipal police officers and 104 security guards. It should be noted that the coordination centres will be guarded by the Mossos d'Esquadra and the State Security Forces — the National Police and Civil Guard.

38 candidacies for the 135 seats in the Parliament

A total of 38 candidacies will run for this Thursday’s election in the four constituencies, two less than in the 2015 election. Of the 42 candidacies originally submitted and published in the BOE (Official Spanish Gazette) and the DOGC (Official Gazette of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia) on 25 November, only the following 38 will participate, after the withdrawal of Diálogo Republicano’s candidacy from all constituencies last Monday. The final candidacies are: 9 in Barcelona, 10 in Gerona, 10 in Lérida and 9 in Tarragona, with a total of 1,247 candidates from which the 135 seats at the Parlament de Catalunya will be chosen: 85 for Barcelona, 17 for Gerona, 15 for Lérida and 18 for Tarragona. 

List of candidacies running for the election:

- Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya – (PSC – PSOE) (PSC)

- Partit Popular / Partido Popular (PP)

- Partit Animalista Contra el Maltractament Animal (PACMA)

- Ciutadans-Partido de la Ciudadanía (C’s)

- Esquerra Republicana-Catalunya Sí (ERC-CatSí)

- Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP)

- Catalunya en Comú-Podem (CatComú-Podem)

- Junts per Catalunya (JUNTSXCAT)

- Recortes Cero-Grupo Verde (RECORTES CERO-GRUPO VERDE)

- Per un Món Més Just (PU M+J)

 

 

 

How to follow the day of the election up-to-the-minute

 

Hall 8 in Fira de Barcelona (Gran Vía venue) will host the Information Centre, where all the details of the evolution of the election day and the final results will be announced. So far, more than 127 national and international media and 460 journalists have been accredited electronically to cover the event. The centre has 540 tables for reporters, with space for 84 TV cameras, 40 points for live connections, simultaneous translation services in four languages —Spanish, German, English and French—, 200 WIFI network hotspots with a speed of 100Mb, an HD signal with 6 translation channels and a satellite signal with audio in 6 languages.

 

Citizens will also be able to follow the parliamentary election in real time through their mobile phones or tablets with the Elecciones 21D app, which will allow them to follow the turnout data and results in real time at various levels (Catalonia, constituencies, counties and municipalities), with the possibility of comparing them with those of the 2012 and 2015 elections. 

The app is available for free for mobile phones and tablets with Android or IOS (iPhone / iPad), and can be set up in Catalan, Spanish and English. Users of the previous editions of the app will receive a message announcing that they can keep the 2015 version, which saves the old data files, but is no longer operative. This message will also indicate the possibility of downloading the Elecciones 21D app. You can download the installation kit from these links:

 

Android  http://gen.cat/app21D_android

 

iOS  http://gen.cat/app21D_ios

 

The website resultats.parlament2017.cat will also be available and updated with data to follow voter turnout and the vote counting process live; you can also check parlament2017.cat for all the information related to the election and compare it with data from previous elections. 

During the election day, the call centre telephone 93 551 59 90 and the citizen information telephone 012 will continue to operate. 

The budget for organizing the elections on 21 December is 25 million euros.

 

4 press statements on 21 December 

On Thursday, 21 December, the Technical Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, Juan Antonio Puigserver, representing the Department of the Interior of the Generalitat de Catalunya, will appear in the press room of the Information Centre to inform about turnout data and provisional results. At night, he will also be accompanied by the delegate of the Spanish Government in Catalonia, Enric Millo, to announce the final results. On Friday, 22 December, election results by polling station will be published on the website resultats.parlament2017.cat.

 

The schedule* of the press statements will be as follows:

 

10:00 am: information about the opening of the polling stations

1:45 pm: first turnout data gathered before 1:00 pm

6:45 pm: second turnout data gathered before 5:00 pm

Last press statement: once 100% of the ballots have been counted.

 

*The schedule of the press statements can undergo modifications throughout the day