PRESS RELEASE.

17 JULY, 2008.

On 16 July in Brussels, the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament supported the CL.A.R.O. Petition alleging voting rights violations of thousand of non-national European Union citizens, mainly British, who had faced obstacles in registering to vote in the municipal elections in Orihuela in May, 2007.

In the Petitions Committee C.L.A.R.O. Party President, Bob Houliston confirmed the failure of the Orihuela Town Hall (Ayuntamiento) to provide street signs and house number which correspond with official padron addresses and failure on the part of the office responsible for the electoral roll (Censo Electoral) and the post office (Correos) to ensure the delivery of 12,300 voting application forms to padron registered, non-Spanish residents. This had led to massive under-representation in the electoral roll in Orihuela, three times less than the province of Alicante as a whole.

The alternative method of registering in person was ineffective due to major practical obstacles in the Orihuela Costa of the Town Hall . As a result of these problems, non-national participation in the local elections in May, 2007 was INSIGNIFICANT and some 30% of the population of the municipality, Spanish and non-Spanish, remain unrepresented in the municipal government. Mr. Houliston warned that unless action was taken to change the situation, there would be similar problems in next year’s European Parliament elections and an insignificant level of participation.

Members of the Petitions Committee expressed serious concern about the events which had taken place in Orihuela Costa and agreed that there had been a violation of voting rights. They demanded to know what steps had been taken since to avoid a repetition of the situation. Mr. Houliston explained that as a consequence of C.L.A.R.O. party legal action in Spain, an elections supervisory body (Junta Electoral) had instructed Orihuela Town Hall to correct the street sign and house numbering deficiencies. It remained to be seen how successful this would be. Showing photographs of mailboxes which were typically on the open street, were damaged, full of publicity material and subject to vandalism, Mr. Houliston maintained that these could never be acceptable addresses for the safe delivery of official mail such as voter application forms.

The only effective solution would be for automatic inclusion of EU non-nationals on the voters list at the time of registering as residents (empadronamiento), a possibility foreseen in the EU Directive 94/80, Article 7.3 and which is the system used for Spanish citizens.

Members of the Petitions Committee expressed support for the idea of automatic registration on the voters list as a means of ensuring equality and non-discrimination between national and non-national citizens. They made various suggestions for action. In his conclusions, the Chairman, Mr. Marcin Libicki, agreed that the Petitions Committee would take action. The level of participation in elections was important and obstacles to registration contributed to low voter turnout. He would decide among a series of possibilities which included contacting the local and regional authorities about the situation in Orihuela and informing the President of the European Parliament who could take action with member states governments to ensure the fullest possible participation in European Parliament and local elections.

Art 211