The publication this Tuesday of the decree calling for the general elections on November 29 will officially activate the electoral calendar, which will culminate with the constitution of the new Cortes Generales and includes key milestones such as the deadlines for registering coalitions and for submitting candidacies for Congress and the Senate.
These are the main dates of the electoral procedure, still pending formal approval of the calendar:
- October 6: the decree calling for the elections and dissolving the Cortes will be published, marking the beginning of the electoral period. From then on, the holding of inauguration events and the dissemination of institutional propaganda will be prohibited. On the same day, the period for requesting a mail-in vote and for managing voting from abroad will also open.
- Between October 6 and 11, the Ministry of Finance must publish in the Official State Bulletin (BOE) a ministerial order setting the maximum campaign spending limit and updating the subsidies that the State will pay to the parties for each vote and seat obtained in the elections on November 29.
- October 16: political parties will have to communicate their electoral coalitions from the call until midnight on June 16. These alliances must be registered with the various electoral boards, whether provincial or the JEC, when their scope covers more than one constituency.
- October 26: between October 21 and 26, parties, coalitions, and electoral groups must present their candidacies for Congress and the Senate to the provincial electoral boards.
- October 28: the registered lists for Congress and the Senate will be made public in the Official State Bulletin (BOE), although they will not yet be definitive, as a period will be opened to correct errors and resolve possible challenges.
- November 3: the Official State Bulletin (BOE) will already disseminate the candidacies proclaimed by the provincial boards, once reviewed and, if applicable, rectified.
- November 13: at midnight on Friday, November 13, the electoral campaign will officially begin, lasting until midnight on Friday, November 27.
- November 23: it will be the last day allowed to publish electoral polls. This restriction, which the parties have not managed to modify or update, remains in place to protect minority parties and prevent that, in the final stretch of the campaign, appeals for useful voting harm them.
- November 28: day of reflection, during which any campaign activity will be banned.
- November 29: day of the general elections, in which more than 37 million citizens will be called to the polls. For the Congress, closed ballots prepared by the parties will be used, while for the Senate the voter will be able to mark up to three names on an open list, whether from the same party or from different formations.
- December 3: first day of the deadline for the different provincial boards to carry out the counting of the votes from the general elections, adding the count carried out on Sunday at the polling stations with the votes cast from abroad by those registered in the Electoral Census of Absentee Residents (CERA). This final count must be completed during that week.
- Around mid-December, the constitutive session of the General Courts will take place, once all appeals have been resolved and the final results proclaimed. The exact date will be set in the election call decree that the Council of Ministers will approve this Monday. On that day, the elected parliamentarians will swear or promise their position and the members of the two Tables, including their presidents, will be elected.
- Five days later, the parliamentary groups will be formed and, from there, a date will be set for the round of consultations at the Palace of Zarzuela for the King to receive the party leaders and propose a candidate for the investiture who gathers the most support.
- That investiture session is not expected before the month of January.