JOINT PRESS RELEASE
21 SEPTEMBER, 2010
NO VOTE NO VOICE CAMPAIGN
C.L.A.R.O. and the Centro Liberal Renovador (CLR) party continue to support strongly the No Vote No Voice Campaign to increase voter registration and voter participation in next year's municipal elections. This campaign has special importance in Orihuela Costa which has little influence in the local government of Orihuela where the Popular Party with its absolute majorities has ruled for over 20 years and ignored the interests of the coast.
The No Vote No Voice campaign for Orihuela Costa began in July with the enthusiastic participation of our two parties and the coastal representatives of the Socialist Workers Party (P.S.O.E.) and the Greens (Los Verdes). The four parties were committed to a special effort to increase voter registration in Orihuela Costa.
To our great surprise, after this enthusiastic beginning, and without explanation, the coastal representatives of P.S.O.E. and Los Verdes abruptly ceased their cooperation. We can only surmise that the coastal representatives of these two parties were instructed by their party headquarters in Orihuela to drop their support for the campaign. However, their abandonment of the joint campaign does not in any way weaken the resolve of the Centro Liberal Renovador (CLR) and C.L.A.R.O. parties to continue to work together to maximise its effectiveness.
The No Vote No Voice campaign, in general, suffered a setback in the decision of the voter registration office (Censo Electoral) on 7 September, to eliminate a very important voter registration facility, the facility to receive, sign and return a voter application form sent by post. For long term, non-Spanish EU residents in Spain, who were registered on the padron before the May, 2007 local elections and who were "sent" (which does not mean they "received") a voting application form by post for those elections, or previously, will not receive one this time. The facility will be limited to those EU citizens who took up residence after May, 2007 and who have not previously been sent these forms - plus non-EU and non-European residents who are eligible to vote in next year's elections. The more recent EU residents will soon receive their voting application forms by post and citizens of the other non-EU and non-European countries will receive theirs nearer December.
The Censo Electoral maintain that those to whom they have sent a voter application form for previous local elections and have not registered to vote "are not interested". This is preposterous! It ignores the fact that thousands of these voter application forms are not received and are returned undelivered by the post office. In Orihuela Costa, prior to the 2007 local elections, 12,500 of these forms (75% of the total sent) were returned undelivered due to the chaotic state of the address system which was not changed until after the elections when the Town Hall was "instructed", after legal action by C.L.A.R.O. and a Petition to the European Parliament, to ensure that street names and house numbers coincided with padron addresses. The injustice of the latest decision is that the 12,500 in Orihuela Costa (plus many others elsewhere in Spain) who did not receive their voting application forms last time, will not receive them this time either. The Censo Electoral decision will also make it more difficult for EU residents, who did receive the voting application form in the past and did not register to vote , to change their minds. They will not be able to benefit from this very important facility available in all previous local and European elections.
C.L.A.R.O. and the Centro Liberal Renovador (CLR) parties support protests against this retrograde decision which will weaken the right of non-Spanish EU residents, enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, to vote in municipal elections under the same conditions as nationals. These protests include complaints to the European Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, to the Spanish Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), EU Ambassadors in Madrid, Consulates in Alicante and of course the media.
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C.L.A.R.O and CLR Press Conference.aviby claroorihuelacosta199 views
Poor sound level.
MalcolmDrew 11 months ago