As a result of Morocco's recent decision to allow foreign residents to vote in local ballots, Spain's government plans to make that right reciprocal

El País | Noticia

The conservatives of the Popular Party (PP) do not want Moroccan immigrants living in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla to vote in local elections in 2015, and they are going to do all they can to prevent it. The citizens of a state that still lays a territorial claim to both cities, the logic goes, cannot have the right to vote. Very likely, the PP is afraid that these immigrants would vote against it and reduce or even endanger the comfortable majority the conservatives obtained in May's local elections.

On July 1, Morocco passed a new Constitution, which, among other things, allows foreign residents to participate in local elections. Four days later, Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez announced in Barcelona that "we are going to sign accords to make that a reciprocal right." Besides the pan-European Union agreement on electoral rights, other countries such Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Cape Verde, Norway, Iceland, Paraguay and Peru have ratified reciprocity agreements with Spain to allow each other's nationals to vote in local polls. If Morocco were added to that list, around 550,000 Moroccan adults living in Spain would be eligible to vote.

Ceuta has around 3,000 Moroccan residents out of a population of 75,000, while Melilla has 6,000 out of a similar total population. Both cities are located along the northern coast of Africa and their status is a constant thorn in the side of Spanish-Moroccan relations.

Immigrant voter turnout in Spanish local elections is typically rather low. It is likely that Moroccans living in Ceuta and Melilla would opt for Muslim leftist parties such as the CPM in Melilla and UDCE in Ceuta, which constitute the main opposition to the PP, rather than the Socialist Party.

PP congressmembers and senators, as well as members of the local governments in both enclaves, have rushed to justify their rejection of the potential Moroccan vote. Francisco Márquez, a PP deputy for Ceuta, and two other PP congressmembers warned on Wednesday about "the serious implications" of allowing Moroccans to vote. They also suggested that the party would veto any attempt at a reciprocity agreement between Spain and Morocco unless both cities are excluded from its terms. Since it might prove difficult to exclude one particular foreign community from the right to vote, Ceuta premier Juan Vivas suggested has eliminating the right to vote for all foreigners living there.

The voter reciprocity issue comes to the fore during a period in which the enclaves have seen increased migratory pressure.

In June 151 illegal immigrants crossed the border from Morocco, eight times more than the figure from the same month last year. In Ceuta, the June figure was a record 136, with a further 90 undocumented migrants gaining entry in the first eight days of July.

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