Spain will return to the polls next Sunday, November 29. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Monday the advance of the general elections, a decision that activates an electoral calendar of almost two months in which the dissolution of the Cortes, the presentation of candidacies, the request for mail-in voting, and the electoral campaign will take place.
The first step will arrive this Tuesday, October 6, with the publication scheduled in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of the royal decree for the dissolution of the Cortes and electoral call. From that moment on, the countdown of 54 days established by the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG) will formally begin when the President of the Government exercises the power of early dissolution.
The publication of the decree will also mean the dissolution of the Congress and the Senate. The Permanent Deputations of both Chambers will assume from then on the functions that correspond to them constitutionally until the constitution of the new Cortes, so parliamentary activity will not completely disappear during the electoral period.
Candidacies, mail-in voting, and electoral campaign
The first deadlines will affect both parties and voters. From the call, mail-in voting can be requested, while the parties that wish to run jointly will have the following ten days to communicate the constitution of their electoral coalitions.
The presentation of the lists to the Congress and the Senate will take place between October 21 and 26, as it falls between the fifteenth and twentieth days after the call. Once registered, the electoral boards will have to review the candidacies and open the corresponding period to correct possible irregularities before their definitive proclamation at the beginning of November.
The electoral campaign will start on Friday, November 13 and will last for 15 days. Parties will be able to formally request votes until midnight on Friday the 27th, while Saturday, November 28 will be reserved for the reflection day prior to the elections.
For citizens who cannot or do not want to go in person to the polls, one of the main deadlines will be the one corresponding to voting by mail. Their request can be made from the electoral call until November 19. Once this modality has been requested and the corresponding annotation has been made in the census, the voter will no longer be able to vote in person at their table on election day.
Calendar of the general elections on November 29
The planned calendar, pending the final publication of the royal decree of call in the BOE, is as follows:
| Date | Electoral calendar |
|---|---|
| October 6 | Expected publication of the electoral call in the BOE and dissolution of the Cortes |
| October 6 | Deadline begins to request voting by mail |
| October 16 | Last day to communicate the constitution of electoral coalitions |
| October 21 | Deadline begins to submit candidacies for Congress and the Senate |
| October 26 | Deadline ends to submit candidacies |
| October 28 | Publication of the submitted candidacies |
| November 2 | Proclamation of the candidacies |
| November 3 | Publication of the proclaimed candidacies |
| November 13 | Campaign begins |
| November 19 | Last day to request voting by mail |
| November 23 | Last day to publish and disseminate electoral polls |
| November 25 | Ordinary deadline to deposit voting by mail |
| November 27 | Campaign ends |
| November 28 | Reflection day |
| November 29 | General elections |
| December 2 | General counting begins |
| December 24 | Constitutional deadline for the new Congress to meet |
The polling stations will open on Sunday, November 29 at 9:00 AM and will remain open until 8:00 PM. Citizens will elect that day the representatives of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate who will make up the new Cortes Generales.
What happens after the elections on November 29
The counting on election night will allow knowing the provisional distribution of seats, although the procedure will continue in the following days. On December 2, the general counting of the electoral boards will begin, in which the results of each constituency will be reviewed before moving on to their definitive proclamation.
The Constitution establishes that the new Congress must meet within 25 days following the elections, so the constitutive session must be held at the latest on December 24. The exact date will be set in the royal decree of electoral call.
Until then, the Permanent Deputations will maintain the powers attributed to them by the Constitution during the period in which the Courts remain dissolved. This circumstance will be particularly relevant in the coming weeks because the Government intends to reapprove this Tuesday the two royal decree-laws on housing rejected last week by Congress, which will have to go through the Permanent Deputation to remain in force beyond the constitutional deadline of 30 days.