The Andalusian electoral night will have a slight delay in the start of the official count. Councilor Antonio Sanz explained this Sunday that the delays registered in some polling stations during the opening of the day will force a wait until 8:43 PM to disseminate the first official counting data.
Voting hours extended in polling stations in Seville, Malaga, and Cadiz due to delays in the constitution of polling boards
The Electoral Board has agreed to extend voting hours in polling stations in Seville, Malaga, and El Puerto de Santa María due to delays in the constitution of some polling boards.
Specifically, the Electoral Board of Seville will extend the voting hours for the polling boards located at the CEIP Azahares in Seville East until 8:43 PM.
The CEIP Constitución in Malaga 78 will also extend its hours until 8:14 PM, after the polling boards were not constituted until 9:14 AM.
For its part, the Provincial Electoral Board of Cadiz has communicated that the hours for the CEIP La Florida in El Puerto de Santa María will be extended until 8:10 PM.
The key is that polling stations that opened later must remain open for the necessary time to guarantee the voting rights of the affected voters. Therefore, although most polling boards will close at 8:00 PM, official scrutiny data will not be offered until the delayed polling stations have also closed.
Polls can still be disseminated, but the official count will wait
As Sanz explained, polls can be disseminated earlier, but official counting data will not begin to be published until 8:43 PM. This alters the usual rhythm of election night, in which the first results usually begin to appear a few minutes after the polls close.
The difference is significant. Polls or estimates can offer a first political snapshot at the general closing of polling stations, but the relevant data will be the official scrutiny, which will begin later than planned due to the delays registered during the morning.
An electoral night that will start later
The delay does not affect the political calendar of the day, but it does affect the informational tempo of the night. Attention will first be focused on the polls, then on the initial reactions of the parties, and from 8:43 PM onwards, on the official count.
From that moment on, the real battle of the night will begin: to check if Juanma Moreno reaches the absolute majority of 55 seats, if María Jesús Montero manages to hold the PSOE's ground, if Vox becomes decisive, and if Adelante Andalucía or Por Andalucía alter the final distribution.
The key: wait for the official data
The warning requires extreme caution. The first official scrutiny data will not be available until 8:43 PM, so any prior reading should be taken as an estimate or poll, not as a result.
The Andalusian night, therefore, will have two phases: first the polls and the initial political narrative; then, from 8:43 PM, the real count province by province. There it will be decided if the PP governs alone or if Andalusia enters a phase of pacts.