Alicante Province most foreign voters in Spain

ALICANTE province has the most foreign citizens registered on the electoral roll in Spain for the upcoming municipal elections scheduled for May 22, 2011. There are 76,455 voters registered in the province, followed by Madrid with 63,364 and Barcelona with 40,529, as reported in a release by the Valencia Regional Government.

Throughout the Valencia Region, the figure rises to a total of 112,966 people, representing a quarter of foreign voters of all Spain, being  457,057 people registered and entitled to vote, explained the Spanish government Minister Rafael Blasco.

The overwhelming majority of foreign voters in Alicante belong to the countries of the European Union, (73,413), while 3,042  other “aliens” were registered on the electoral roll from third countries with bilateral agreements with Spain.

In the opinion of the Minister, these figures show “the importance of the foreign population in the province of Alicante and throughout the region and its level of integration” that “make use of their right to vote and participate actively in the selection of Government for the municipalities in which they reside”.

Sr. Blasco highlighted that the high participation of British and the Germans, “belies the traditional belief that these European citizens are not integrated in the Alicante towns in which they reside”, representing 18 percent of European Community registered on the electoral roll of Spain.

Throughout Valencia, three out of every four foreign citizens entitled to vote in municipal elections live within the cosmopolitan Province of Alicante.

By Paul Deed