The political parties, federations, coalitions, and groups of voters have since this Wednesday, October 21, the possibility of registering their candidacies for Congress and the Senate for the general elections on November 29. The deadline will remain open in the different Provincial Electoral Boards until midnight on Monday, October 26.
According to the electoral calendar, the formations will have six calendar days to formalize their lists in the constituencies where they wish to present themselves. These candidacies will be made public in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) on Wednesday, October 28.
This initial publication will not be definitive. The Provincial Electoral Boards will have the following two days to warn the parties of the irregularities detected or reported in the lists, which may be corrected within a maximum period of 48 hours from the notification.
Once this review phase is concluded, the electoral boards will have until Monday, November 2, to proclaim the valid candidacies, which will be published in the BOE the following day, Tuesday, November 3.
The political formations may challenge the proclamation of candidacies before the Administrative Litigation Court on November 4 and 5, an entity that will have two days to issue a resolution. Subsequently, there may be an appeal for protection before the Constitutional Court, which must rule within a period of three days. Additionally, during the electoral campaign, appeals may be presented before the Special Chamber of the Supreme Court, whose decisions will also be appealable before the Constitutional Court.
Fewer coalitions than in the 2023 elections
Those authorized to present lists are the parties and federations registered in the Political Parties Registry of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as the electoral coalitions that have been constituted and communicated to the competent Electoral Board by the night of this Friday.
In this call, nine electoral coalitions have been registered with the Central Electoral Board: two are competing only for Congress, three only for the Senate, and four are of autonomous scope and are presenting to both chambers. In the 2023 elections, a dozen coalitions participated: three of state scope, one specific to the Senate, and eight autonomous.
The most significant coalition for the 29N in the Lower House is that of Frente Amplio, led by Ada Colau and Emilio Delgado, which ultimately did not reach a global agreement with Podemos, except in the Canary Islands and the Valencian Community. In the Senate, the most notable alliance is the one formed between PSOE and Frente Amplio in the majority of the constituencies.
There are also coalitions confined to a single province that have been registered directly with the Provincial Electoral Boards, such as the one made up of Més and Frente Amplio in the Balearic Islands or the alliance between UPN and PP in Navarra.
Endorsement of 0.1% for parties without representation
The parties, federations, and coalitions that did not secure a seat in either of the two chambers in the previous general elections must collect the signatures of at least 0.1% of the registered voters in the census of each constituency in which they wish to run.
This requirement affects, for example, "Democracia 21", which has been configured as a coalition with Ciudadanos and UCIN and intends to run in Madrid and Barcelona. In the Madrid constituency, it must provide at least about 5,500 signatures, and in the Barcelona constituency, at least about 4,400.
Elector groups may also register candidacies, although in their case, the support of at least 1% of the registered voters in the corresponding constituency is required. No citizen may support more than one list with their signature.
Unlike parties, these groups are created solely to intervene in a specific electoral process, without the need to be listed in the Political Parties Register and without the possibility of presenting joint candidacies that cover more than one constituency.
New feature: zipper lists of men and women
Among the conditions that candidacies must meet is the respect for the principle of electoral parity, which for the first time in a general election requires that the lists for Congress be made up of women and men alternating successively.
Until now, the Electoral Law required that candidacies include at least 40% of people of each sex and that none exceeded 60%, a proportion that had to be maintained in each segment of five positions. The reform introduced by Organic Law 2/2024, of parity representation, has replaced this model with the so-called gender zipper lists.
This balanced composition must be respected in the entirety of the candidacy, without separating candidates and substitutes, and it will also be mandatory when the candidacies for the Senate are structured in lists. This aims to ensure that representation in both chambers is practically equal.
In 2023, 1,090 lists were presented
In the elections held in the summer of 2023, the Provincial Electoral Boards proclaimed a total of 1,090 lists for the General Courts, 550 for Congress and 540 for the Senate, which was 186 less than in 2019. In the process, 66 candidacies from extraparliamentary formations were excluded due to formal errors, non-compliance with requirements, or, mainly, for not providing the necessary endorsements.
In total, 4,892 candidates competed on July 23, 2023, for the 350 seats in Congress and the 208 in the Senate —this year one more is elected following the constitutional reform that allowed the creation of a dedicated senator for the island of Formentera—, which translates to an average of ten candidates for each seat in the Lower House and 5.5 for each position in the Senate.