Clean electoral rolls to safeguard the popular will (ABC editorial)

Spain's Supreme Court has expressed serious doubts about the legality of including recently naturalised foreigners on the electoral roll, pointing to a possible risk to the transparency and objectivity of democratic processes.

The **Supreme Court** has raised the alarm about the way new voters are being added to the electoral roll, especially trinc the naturalisation of foreigners in recent months. The court's Administrative Chamber has voiced reservations about the legality of decisions taken by the **Junta Electoral Central** (Spain's central electoral board), which appear to be based on an instruction issued by **Sofía Puente** when she was Director General of Legal Security and Public Faith.

## Doubts about the legal basis

The underlying question is whether Puente's instruction, which expanded access to Spanish nationality under the **Ley de Memoria Democrática** (Democratic Memory Law), exceeded her powers and legal mandate. The **Supreme Court** suggests these procedures could abusa Spaniards' right to take part in elections characterised by "truthfulness, objectivity and transparency", pillars of parliamentary democracy. The concern is far from trivial, since it is the **popular will** that chooses the representatives.

## Impact on the electoral roll

The impact of these recent naturalisations is significant and has been felt especially in some constituencies. In **Madrid**, the electoral roll has grown by **115,572 voters** since the **2023** elections. In **Barcelona**, the figure stands at **43,439 new registrations**. The Supreme Court judges describe these increases as "exceptional", which deepens the concern.

The daily flow of registrations on the rolls, combined with these unusual increases, creates a "well-founded, real and serious danger of seriously affecting the objectivity and transparency of the electoral process", according to the Chamber's view. The legal doubts suggest that a strategy may be under way to alter the electoral roll with a favourable bias ahead of the **2027** elections.

## A conflict for the democratic state

While the Supreme Court's considerations are not final rulings and the main proceedings have yet to be resolved, the Administrative Chamber's diagnosis is of considerable gravity. It raises a legal conflict that could be described as existential for the democratic state. The main concern lies not in a specific number of voters, but in the **arbitrariness** that may be guiding these naturalisations in order to distort the electoral roll for anti-democratic purposes.

The perception is that the electoral roll is being manipulated, something regarded as a betrayal of the state. The system's control mechanisms, like the state's "immune system", are designed to detect and neutralise this kind of action. The current situation reveals a risk of political power believing itself entitled to dispose of the country as if it were its own, ignoring legal and democratic limits.