Should we stay or should we go? Have your say on Brexit vote

UPDATE APRIL 2016: The deadline to register to vote in the EU Referendum is 7 June.

Britain will decide whether to leave the European Union in a referendum on Thursday 23 June – and British nationals living in Spain risk missing their chance to vote unless they register soon.

If you have been on the electoral roll in the UK in the last 15 years then you can vote, even if you live in Spain.

The British Ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley, launched a campaign in early February to raise awareness among Spanish expats about their right to vote. Since then there has been a surge in Britons living overseas registering to vote with the average rate of online registrations quadrupling from 600 a day to more than 2,600 a day.

British Ambassador to Spain Simon Manley launches expat voting awareness campaign in Alicante. Photo: British Embassy Madrid

The Ambassador said: “Whether you think the UK should remain in or leave the EU, the 23rd of June will be your chance to have your say. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the British people to decide.

“You might be asking yourself, why bother to vote? Although you may now live in Spain, most expats still have strong ties with the UK – financial, family, friends. You may also decide to return one day. So you very probably do have a stake in the outcome and how it may affect your life. I strongly encourage you to register to vote – just go online and follow the simple process.”

According to the figures released earlier this month by the British Embassy, 283,000 Britons are registered on their local padrón as resident in Spain, but just 11,000 are registered to vote in the UK.

However, those British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years have no right to vote. L’Ametlla resident Chloe Anderson told Perelló Plus: “As someone who has always voted, I find it incredible that I, a British and European citizen, can find myself outside the democratic system at anything above a Spanish local government level. It is especially worrying given that I will be so personally affected by the outcome of a vote in favour of Brexit.”

If Britain decides to leave the EU then the consequences for Britons living in Spain are, as yet, unclear. The minimum period for the exit to happen would be two years. After that Britons may require visas to work outside the UK and healthcare costs may rise.

Opinion polls show that the British public is fairly evenly split on the question of whether to leave the EU.

There’s a useful guide to the EU referendum and its implications on the BBC website here.

How to register to vote

1. You must have been registered in a UK constituency in the last 15 years.
2. If you last lived in England, Scotland or Wales, go to the Government’s website www.gov.uk/register-to-vote with your passport details, National Insurance number (not compulsory) and the postcode of where you last lived in the UK. You can choose whether to vote by post, proxy or in person if you’re going to be in the UK on polling day.
3. If you last lived in Northern Ireland, download an overseas voter application form from the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland.
4. Don’t leave it too late because your ballot paper needs time to reach Spain from the UK in the post and then time to return to the UK in the post.
5. Ballot papers will be dispatched about a month before polling day.

Header photo credit: Dave Kellam under a Creative Commons licence.

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