The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, presented this morning at a press conference the details and organization of the next elections to the European Parliament, which will be held in Spain this Sunday, June 9.
Accompanied by the General Secretary of the Delegation, Consuelo Gutiérrez, and the coordinator of the electoral device, Antonio Mañero, Gómez de Diego highlighted the importance of these elections, stressing that the European Parliament is the only multinational parliament elected by universal suffrage. "Since 1979, this institution has been renewed 9 times and this year we will elect 720 MEPs, 61 of them in Spain, seven more than in the last elections due to the departure of the United Kingdom," he said.
In Cantabria, the electoral census is composed of 514,107 voters, of whom 467,995 are residents in the region and 43,229 are Cantabrians abroad. In addition, 2,883 foreigners residing in Cantabria will be able to vote. Since the last European elections of 2019, 26,420 new voters have joined, and since the general elections of 2023, 4,907 more.
The electoral system in Cantabria includes 739 tables distributed in 358 places, with 2,217 table members and 4,434 deputies. The electoral material prepared comprises 739 ballot boxes, 700 booths, 545,500 envelopes, 16,282,508 ballot papers and 11,772 manuals. 424 tablets will be used for the transmission of results.
Security will be guaranteed by about one thousand troops of the State Security Forces and Corps, with the support of the Local Police. The total budget amounts to 869,000 euros.
In an effort for inclusion, we have collaborated with the Full Inclusion association to install accessible signage in the Santander electoral colleges and have received 8 requests for accessible voting kits for people with visual disabilities.
Strengthening democracy
Another novelty of this year is the obligation to write down in the act of constitution of the board the name of the alternates who have not finally been part of the board, thus improving transparency.
In Cantabria, there will also be specific tables installed in the Parliament of Cantabria for the 8,393 voters of Romanian nationality residing in the region, in collaboration with the Embassy of Romania.
Gómez de Diego thanked all the agencies and people involved in the organization of these elections and encouraged citizens to exercise their right to vote on June 9, stressing that "their participation is fundamental to strengthen our democracy and our representation in Europe."