The undecided of 29N: what the CIS reveals about those who still have not decided their vote

The call for the general elections on November 29, 2026 is already official. The Royal Decree 806/2026, of October 5, dissolves the Congress and the Senate and calls elections for both Chambers; it was published in the BOE on October 6, from which point the calendar set by the Constitution and the LOREG applies.
You can consult the decree in the BOE and the explanatory note from the Congress in this press release.

1. Actions already taken and legal framework

• Dissolution of the Cortes: the decree of October 5 dissolves the Congress and the Senate elected in July 2023 and opens an electoral period of 54 days until November 29, in accordance with the LOREG.
• Official call: the publication in the BOE on October 6 triggers all electoral deadlines (census, candidacies, campaign, postal voting, counting, etc.).
• Bodies in office: only the Permanent Deputation remains active, which assumes limited powers (mainly regarding royal decrees and states of alarm, exception, and siege) until the new Chambers are constituted.

2. Next steps until the definitive registration of candidacies

• Until October 16: deadline for parties to notify the Electoral Board of the electoral coalitions with which they wish to run (a ten-day window from the call).
• From October 21 to 26: submission of candidacies to the Congress and Senate before the competent electoral boards.
• October 28: publication of the submitted candidacies in the official bulletins.
• November 2: official proclamation of candidacies after reviewing requirements and resolving possible defects.
• November 3: publication of the proclaimed candidacies.

• Electoral census: the reference census is the one closed on August 1; consultation and filing of claims generally take place between October 12 and 19, according to notes from the INE and various municipalities.
• Designation of polling stations: municipalities will carry out the draws for polling station members and notifications within the margins provided by the LOREG after the proclamation of candidacies.

3. Electoral campaign, postal voting, and election day

• November 13, 00:00 h: official start of the electoral campaign, lasting fifteen days.
• November 27, 24:00 h: end of the campaign. From that moment, the reflection day on Saturday, November 28 applies, during which voting cannot be solicited.
• Postal voting:
  • From October 6 until November 19, postal voting can be requested, as detailed by Demócrata based on Correos.
  • From November 9, electoral documentation is sent to applicants.
  • November 25 is the ordinary deadline to deposit postal votes at Correos offices.
• November 29: election day. Polling stations will be open from 9:00 to 20:00, and at closing, provisional counting will be carried out at the tables.

4. Counting, proclamation of elected officials, and constitution of the Chambers

• From December 2: start of the general counting by the electoral boards, reviewing results table by table and votes cast from abroad.
• Proclamation of elected officials: once counting is finished and electoral litigation claims resolved, the definitive proclamation of deputies and senators proceeds.
• December 23, 2026, 10:00 h: constitutive session of the Congress and Senate, set in Royal Decree 806/2026 itself and framed within the constitutional limit of 25 days after the elections. In it, the Boards of both Chambers are elected and parliamentarians acquire full status as elected officials.

5. Investiture and possible subsequent scenarios

• The Congress will communicate the results to the king, who will initiate consultations and propose a candidate for the Presidency of the Government.
• The investiture debate will be held, with a first vote requiring an absolute majority and a possible second vote requiring a simple majority.
• If no candidacy obtains confidence within two months from the first vote, the Constitution provides for a new dissolution and automatic call for elections.

The Center for Sociological Research (CIS) is, according to Spanish legislation, an autonomous administrative body with its own legal personality and assets, whose main purpose is the scientific study of Spanish society. Its basic legal framework is provided by Law 39/1995, of December 19, on the Organization of the CIS, and by Royal Decree 1214/1997, of July 18, on the organization of the CIS, the latter modified, among others, by Royal Decrees 923/2009, 485/2022, and 166/2025.

Purpose and principles of action

Law 39/1995 (art. 1) defines the CIS as an autonomous body attached to the Ministry of the Presidency, with the purpose of scientifically and empirically studying Spanish society. Both the Law and Royal Decree 1214/1997 emphasize that its actions must be governed by the principles of objectivity, neutrality, and impartiality, equal access to data, respect for citizens' rights, and statistical secrecy. Recent reforms add principles of transparency, participation, quality, scientific rigor, professional ethics, and service to the general interest.

Basic material functions

From Law 39/1995 and Royal Decree 1214/1997, the core functions of the CIS are:

• Conducting sociological studies that contribute to the scientific knowledge of Spanish society and, when appropriate, the social reality of the Autonomous Communities.
• Preparing diagnoses on social situations and problems that serve as guidance to public authorities in their legislative and executive initiatives.
• Programming, designing, and executing surveys and other empirical studies (including barometers and electoral studies) as the main research method.
• Creating and maintaining databases in its areas of competence, constituting a data bank that integrates anonymized results of its surveys and qualitative studies.
• Disseminating results through publications (journals, books, bulletins, etc.) and other scientific communication channels.
• Promoting applied social research (grant calls, aid and awards, organization of courses and seminars) and collaboration with national and international universities and research centers.

Surveys, barometers, and electoral studies

Law 39/1995 specifically regulates research through surveys. Principles such as voluntariness of responses, especially on political, religious, ideological, or privacy-related issues; research transparency (informing who conducts the study and for what purposes); specialty in the use of information exclusively for research purposes; and the obligation to protect personal data are established.

Royal Decree 1214/1997 develops this matter: surveys cannot contain data that allow personal identification and, once technically processed, must be incorporated into the CIS data bank. The regulation sets maximum deadlines for results to be available (generally three months from the end of fieldwork) and details access conditions: any natural or legal person can request information, subject to limits derived from data protection, statistical secrecy, and the service's own operability.

Regarding surveys on voting intention, party and political leader ratings, Law 39/1995 obliges the CIS to send a provisional advance of results to the Cortes Generales (and, when appropriate, to the autonomous legislative assemblies) shortly after finishing fieldwork and data recording. Additionally, during electoral periods, the Law and Royal Decree provide that the CIS must adjust its actions to what the Electoral Administration determines and to what is established in the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime, being able to publish polls only under the terms of the latter.

Relationship with the Cortes and data dissemination

A distinctive feature of the CIS is its close link with the Cortes Generales. The body must send:

• An annual report on the execution of its activity program.
• Every three months, the list of completed works entered into the data bank.
• Provisional advances of electoral and political rating surveys.

Moreover, Deputies and Senators can request data, reports, or documents necessary for the performance of their parliamentary functions. All this is articulated without prejudice to the principle of public and equal access to the data bank by society as a whole, limited by personal data protection and the quality and operability of the service.

Internal organization and governing powers

Royal Decree 1214/1997, in its current wording, details the CIS's organic structure and the powers of its bodies:

• A Presidency, the highest governing body, responsible for the superior direction of the body, institutional representation, preparation of the annual program and budget execution, approval of the report, signing research agreements, hiring, and other personnel and management powers.
• A General Directorate of Coordination and Research, responsible for planning and executing research projects, directing fieldwork and data processes, ensuring compliance with transparency and information reuse rules, and coordinating technical activity.
• Departments of Information and Communications Technologies, Data Bank, and Publications and Research Promotion, with specific functions in information systems management, preservation and exploitation of the data bank, editing and dissemination of publications, and organization of scientific and training activities.
• A General Secretariat, in charge of ordinary economic-administrative management, budget and report preparation, as well as personnel management by delegation.
• An Advisory Council, a consultative body composed of persons of recognized prestige in social sciences, with the function of advising on projects and work programs, reviewing scientific activity, and making proposals.

Altogether, this regulatory framework configures the CIS as an official statistical service specialized in applied social research, with broad powers to produce and disseminate knowledge about Spanish society, under strict criteria of neutrality, transparency, and data protection.

In Spain, parties wishing to run jointly in general elections (Congress and Senate) do so through an electoral coalition. This coalition is governed by the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), mainly by its provisions on parties, coalitions, groupings of electors, submission of candidacies, and financing.

1. Main legal basis

• LOREG: regulates who can submit candidacies (parties, federations, coalitions, and groupings of electors), how coalitions are formed, deadlines for notification to the Electoral Board, list submission, endorsements, and electoral financing.
• Party and financing laws: complement the regime for party registration and the auditing of electoral income and expenses.

Only parties or federations previously registered in the Political Parties Registry can form a coalition to run in the general elections; groupings of electors do not form “coalitions” in the strict sense but joint candidacies with their own signature regime.

2. Notification and registration of the coalition

Even before submitting lists, parties must notify the coalition to the competent Electoral Board (in general elections, the Central Electoral Board plays a key role) within the legal deadline counted from the publication of the royal decree calling the elections:

• The deadline is very short (about 10 days from the call); after this period, no new coalition can be registered for those elections.
• The notification must be signed by the legal representatives of all parties forming the coalition.

The notification letter must include, at minimum:

• Complete identification of the parties or federations forming the coalition.
• Name of the coalition, its acronyms, and, if applicable, symbol, which cannot cause confusion with existing ones.
• Territorial scope in which the coalition will present candidacies (e.g., all constituencies or only some provinces).
• Designation of the general representative and the proxy before the Electoral Board for all electoral process procedures.
• (Usually, although not always explicitly required by the LOREG) references to the internal coalition agreement from which organizational and financial decisions derive.

Once notified, candidacies to the Congress and Senate are submitted under the coalition's name and acronyms, not those of each party separately.

3. Parties that previously ran in another format

LOREG provides specific rules when the same parties ran in previous elections under a different formula (e.g., integrated in a coalition with a different name or under different acronyms):

• For campaign rights and subsidies, the reference is the result obtained previously by that same combination of forces (parties and federations forming the current coalition).
• If they now run separately who previously ran together, each is considered a “new” candidacy for many purposes (e.g., to determine if endorsements are needed in other electoral processes), unless the law expressly establishes the carryover of certain rights.

4. Signatures and endorsements: parties vs. groupings of electors

• Legally registered parties and federations and coalitions formed by them do not need to collect signatures to submit candidacies to the Congress or Senate.
• Groupings of electors must collect signatures from a minimum percentage of registered electors in the constituency. This percentage is significant (about 1 % of the province's census), and each elector can only sign for one candidacy in that constituency.
• If a list includes both parties and a grouping of electors, the endorsement requirement applies due to the presence of the grouping; the citizen support is counted for that joint candidacy.

5. Distribution of campaign times and subsidies

LOREG treats the coalition as a single candidacy for purposes of:

• Free spaces in public media (radio and television): assigned based on previous results of the coalition or the forces forming it.
• Electoral spending limit: the coalition has a single spending ceiling per constituency and at the state level.
• Subsidies for votes and seats and for sending propaganda: calculated on the coalition's overall result.

How these airtime, resources, and subsidies are internally distributed among parties is a contractual matter, which must be regulated in the coalition agreement: distribution of seats, financing, who acts as electoral administrator, and how responsibility before the Court of Auditors and Electoral Boards is shared.

6. Differences compared to running separately

The main differences between running in coalition or separately are:

• Electoral competitiveness: the coalition concentrates votes in a single list per province. With the D’Hondt system and provincial constituencies, this usually benefits forces that, separately, would be close to winning a seat.
• Political identity: the ballot will show the coalition's name and acronyms; each party's visibility depends on the agreement (order of logos, etc.).
• Organization of the parliamentary group: once seats are obtained, deputies elected by the coalition may form one or several parliamentary groups, according to internal distribution and provided they meet regulatory requirements; if each party ran alone, some could be relegated to the Mixed Group.
• Financial and control regime: electoral accounting is unique for the coalition, while running separately each party has its own spending limit and auditing.

In summary, the electoral coalition is a formalized figure strongly regulated by the LOREG: it requires early notification, a solid internal agreement, and a clear joint assumption of rights and responsibilities throughout the electoral process.