143.000 FOREIGN VOTERS ON THE ELECTORAL ROLL

THE Balearics has the fifth largest number of European Union and Norwegian citizens who will be voting at the May 25 local elections.
However, only one in five EU and Norwegian residents in Spain have enrolled to vote with at least 143.070 heading to the polls according to the latest figures from the National Statistic Institute. The largest pocket of EU and Norwegian voters, some 27 per cent of the national foreign resident electorate, is in Alicante where 32.959 residents, out of the region's 118.193 EU residents, have registered on the electoral role. In Malaga, as many as 17.110 EU residents will be casting their votes on May 25, followed by 14.749 in Barcelona, 12.928 in Madrid and 12.449 in the Balearics, the latter according to the CERE, Census of foreign residents in Spain. 8.479 foreign residents will be voting in Santa Cruse de Tenerife, 5.539 in Las Palmas, 4.574 in Gerona, 4.299 in Valencia city and the remainder in slightly smaller numbers across the country. In fact, in the autonomous community of Valencia, which includes Valencia city, Alicante and Castellon, a total of 38.383 foreign voters are entitled to vote later this month.The figure represents an increase of 116 per cent since 1999, while in the Balearics the figure is double the number of foreign voters at the last local elections. The British are the predominant force in Alicante with the Germans, “a long way behind” according to the National Statistics Institute, in second place, followed by the Dutch, Belgian and French.