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British residents in Spain will not be able to vote in the general election on Sunday November 29 unless they have taken Spanish nationality. The same goes for other foreign residents, and it comes down to the difference between holding a residence permit and being a Spanish citizen.

 

The Spanish Constitution says only Spaniards hold the voting rights in Article 23, with an exception for municipal elections where a treaty or law allows it on a reciprocal basis. The electoral law adds that the right to vote belongs to Spanish citizens of legal age who are on the electoral register. That includes people who are Spanish by birth and those who gained nationality after the minimum legal period of residence.

 

Local elections are where British residents do have a say. The British Embassy has previously explained that UK nationals can vote at municipal level but not in regional or national elections. It said Britons could vote and stand in local elections “once they have been resident for 3 years”, provided they are on the padrón and confirm their place on the censo electoral within the dates set before each election. The Embassy also warned that an Ayuntamiento may not allow registration at other times, and estimated that at least 300,000 British citizens are registered as residents in Spain.

 

The extraordinary immigration regularisation that came into effect on April 16 has raised hundreds of questions of its own. It grants only an initial one-year residence and work permit, so people who benefit cannot vote in a general election unless they later obtain Spanish nationality. They could vote in municipal elections if there is a reciprocal agreement with their country of origin and they meet the minimum residency requirement.

 

There is also a complication for some Spaniards who live abroad. A controversial Supreme Court decision has suspended the registration, on the census of absent residents known as the CERA, of people who became Spanish under the “grandchildren law.” This applies to those naturalised under a Ministry of Justice instruction of October 25, 2022, which presumed exile for Spaniards who left between July 18, 1936 and December 31, 1955.

 

As of August 1, 2026, 163,020 people were on the CERA. For now, only those with a consular certificate proving they are the child or grandchild of a Spaniard exiled for political, ideological, religious or sexual orientation reasons can vote. Those without one cannot take part, at least for the time being.

 

 

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