(Part one can be found here)

The evening before the elections

Now my visit to the local town hall to find out where I can vote in the elections on May 22nd my friend Antonio will come with me to make sure that we get everything right first time. We stand in line waiting to be seen by the receptionist who is trying to look busy on her computer only looking up when Antonio coughs, their eyes meet and then she beckons us to take a seat, which we do. Antonio explains to her that all I want to know is, am I listed on the Padron and where I have to go to vote.

She sparks up her computer and rapidly taps the keyboard and the screen jumps into life, she pauses for a few seconds while the screen catches up with her pounding of the keyboard, she turns to Antonio and says ”Yes he is registered on the Padron, but he is not entitled to vote as he did not sign in January”. Well I was surprised again, not only am I not eligible to vote for myself, I am not able to vote for anyone else either, we tried to sort things out but she would not budge from her stance and no way was she even going to attempt to push things forward for me nor anyone else for that matter.

So now I am standing as a candidate for the Partido Popular and am not entitled to vote, only in Spain could this happen, but there again its not what you know its who you know, so giving up on voting I will continue to press on with my campaign to get the Partido Popular voted into the town hall, where we can at least represent the people of Sax and what they want to happen in their town, instead of being told what is best for them by the opposing party.

For now it’s a daily routine of rising early and getting about town talking to people and asking them what they would like to see happen in their town and how they want their council tax spent, this can lead to some very interesting conversations which I enjoy listening to, the old folk who were born and brought up in Sax seem to remember just about every politician who ever walked the streets for the last 70 years, which is really interesting as their descendants seem to be doing the same thing nowadays. With myself, the new boy on the block, I do get some interesting questions and some funny looks from the locals, being a foreigner they seem unsure as to what I am up to and where my loyalties are in respect of the town.

I try to convince them that I want what they want, and the only way to get things done is to vote PP, I am assured that they will come to every event that we, the PP hold, not only to sit with their friends, listen to our talks, and enjoy the free coffee and treats of biscuits, free biros, stickers, and pin badges, but make it a social event no matter what we say or do. At least, I think to myself we should have a full house at our rallies and no matter what we say or do they will vote for who their parents voted for 4, 8 or 12 years ago, as it was their sister’s, brother’s, uncle that stood as a party member some 12 years ago and they think that whatever he stood for is now relevant to this election.

As the days pass the events that I am attending are getting more and more frequent and more demanding and the talks that are expected from me to the general public have to be a little more in depth about what the PP are going to do for the town and its inhabitants. The weekend is now looming and Friday at midnight we have to stop campaigning as this is the law here in Spain, and so we are going to have a street party to give us one last promotion before the church clock strikes 12:00hrs, we are going to have Motocross Champion of Spain “Alvaro Lozano” put on a short display of his riding skills, in the Plaza Alberto Sols which is situated in front of the only Hotel in Sax, so everyone knows where it is.

Then Saturday I will be able to have a lie in and sleep until at least 09:00am which is something I am looking forward to, as I have to be up and about on Sunday morning at 06:15am as the polling stations open at 08:00am and close at 20:00hrs, The only thing I can do now is Waite for Sunday evening once the votes are in and keep my fingers crossed hoping that we did enough to sway the voters that we deserve a chance to govern this town for the next four years.

Sunday 22nd May I went into the town and joined all the party members and supporters as we gathered at our local bar to have a coffee and prepare for “Election Day” we were given our election briefing about what to do and where we were to police the polling booths, and I along with Pedro Jose, set off to the local school we were giving to look after. There were six or seven of us as the school had four tables to look after and there were five schools that were polling stations.

At each school there was a Guardia Civil officer to make sure that there was no problems and a returning officer who oversaw the proceedings of the day, once we were settled in the doors opened at 08:00am sharp, something which does not normally happen in Spain as they are known for their lax altitude to times of any sort, and the day began.

There were a steady stream of voters during the day and the table that Pedro and I were watching got really bust around 11:30am as I think that this was a day for the locals gathered to meet up with their friends before moving on to the local bars and cafes for a coffee or beer to chat about who and why they were voting for this year, events like these often seem to more of a social event as the main event itself.

The day seemed to go quite quickly as 20:00hrs came and we closed the doors and started to do the paperwork before the polling boxes were opened, I cannot discuss the procedure itself as it is something I signed before the count, but I can assure you it was done in the very strict and orderly way. The count took some two and a half hours with over 1,000 envelopes to open and sort into the piles for the different parties, and then count, I was surprised and enlightened into the process.

So now it’s Monday 23rd May 2011 and for all Spanish residents will know that the Partido Popular change the colour of Spain from Red to Blue, the Spanish news stated that “A Blue wave washed over the country” it was around 11:30pm that we in Sax got the final local numbers in but we were sure that we had won by the first numbers that were being reported from earlier counts in the town, as we were finishing our counts in the schools, we were gathering at our party headquarters in preparation for our victory party, the local police were blocking off the main road in anticipation of the crowds that were just starting to appear, then around midnight we had the final count, and the crowed burst into spontaneous singing and clapping, everyone was hugging and kissing the person next to them with a lot of back slapping by the men and hugging by their wives, the atmosphere was electric and everyone had a six mile wide smile on their faces, we had won, and the party was going to go on until at least the very, very small hours of Monday morning.

Now I have a new string to my bow, as a town councillor and defender of the foreigners that have chosen to make their home in my town of Sax, I still have a smile on my face and a bounce in my stride; in fact I feel a new era for the town has begun.

The official webpage of the results for Sax can be found here