The electoral advance complicates the suspension of the vote for those nationalized by the Law of Grandchildren

The electoral advance has come to add an element of complexity to a cause that was already particularly intricate, that of the right to vote for those who took advantage of the law on grandchildren to obtain nationality. The Supreme Court (TS) agreed on September 9 to suspend this right, a precautionary measure whose execution is proving very difficult. Holding elections on November 29 means shortening by several months the deadlines with which we were working and which were already considered very tight.

This precautionary measure was adopted at the request of Iustitia Europa and Vox. Both parties have taken steps this Monday to ensure the effectiveness of that suspension. Iustitia has presented a document asking the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TS to order to determine "immediately" who is affected by the precautionary measure. For its part, Vox asks the court to declare that the agreed suspension "is applicable to the elections of November 29, 2026" and to order the Central Electoral Board to take immediate measures to "safeguard the purpose of the precautionary measure."

In accordance with the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg), the census used for 29-N will be the one corresponding to last August 1 ("For each election the current Electoral Census will be the one closed on the first day of the second month prior to the call"). According to legal sources familiar with the procedure against the grandchildren law, the registrations affected by the suspension of the High Court must be removed from this census.

The General Directorate of Consular Affairs recently sent a letter to the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TS highlighting the "circumstances that may hinder or slow down" compliance with the measure. The letter explained that it will be necessary to review the hundreds of thousands of files one by one to check whether the nationalized person took advantage of the instruction of the Ministry of Justice that is under question in the High Court.

Legal sources highlight that, according to the wording of the precautionary measure, the suspension of the right to vote generally affects all those who resorted to the provision of the Democratic Memory law that gave nationality to the descendants of exiles. Those who had documented this condition could be freed from suspension. That is, the starting point is the suspension of the vote.

The Supreme Court agreed that those who had obtained nationality through the Democratic Memory Law and were already registered in the Electoral Census of Absent Residents (Cera) abroad, "the electoral effects of registration in said Census will be suspended for the successive electoral processes that may be called, until the ruling in this procedure is issued."

According to figures provided by the State Attorney's Office, as of August 1, almost 370,000 nationalities had been granted thanks to the grandchildren law and there were 230,000 pending registration in the civil registry. Another 640,000 applications were pending resolution.

The announcement of the electoral advance comes precisely on the day that the Fourth Litigation Section has deliberated the appeal of the State Attorney's Office requesting that the precautionary suspension be lifted. It was a coincidence: the call occurred on Thursday, when the deadlines to oppose this appeal for reconsideration expired. The Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office, which had also opposed the precautionary measure, joined the bulk of the Attorney's appeal.

Appeals for reconsideration are resolved by the same magistrates who issued the contested resolution, which is why they are practically never considered. Sources from the Anto Tribunal recall this, adding that we are facing an exceptional case in which the electoral advance for the magistrates is going backwards. If the procedure before the Supreme Court does not prosper, the State Attorney's Office could try the procedure of the Constitutional Court to deactivate the suspension of the right to vote of hundreds of thousands of naturalized citizens residing abroad.