3 January 2005

MADRID-Registered voters in Spain's 500,000-strong, British expatriate community have been barred from voting when the country becomes the first member state to hold a referendum on the new European Union constitution in February, it was reported.

The majority of Spaniards are even unaware there is a forthcoming referendum, but the ban has angered expatriates planning to vote, Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

And the manner in which the Spanish government has apparently covered up the move has enraged them further.

"They haven't even had the courtesy to inform foreigners that this a Spanish-only referendum," says Kate Mentink-Duncan, a Scot who, as an opposition Partido Popular councillor in Calvia, Majorca, is Spain's only British-born politician.

"Expats have found out they can't vote only by default. Unlike Spanish nationals, they should have received their voting papers by now and, only when they raised the matter with their local town halls, have they learnt they have been disenfranchised."

A spokesman for Spain's Interior Ministry, which is organising the referendum, said: "Non-Spanish residents of EU nations are free to vote in their home countries."

But this is still undecided as each member state is being allowed to determine its own conditions regarding the referendum vote, including who is and isn't entitled to take part.

Phillip Bushill-Matthews, British Conservative MEP for the West Midlands, claims that this was an error by Brussels.

"Tony Blair could do the very opposite of the Spanish when he calls the referendum in Britain," he said.

"We could then see pro-constitution, non-British European citizens flood across the Channel just to cast their `Yes' vote."

Given the determination of the Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero, to win a resounding "Si'' endorsement, critics believe Madrid has covertly taken a decision to disenfranchise non-Spanish residents - especially more europhobic Britons - for fear their participation will result in a humiliating defeat.

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