From September 24th to 28th, AEGEE Election Observation organised an Electoral Observation Mission for the Parlamentary elections of Catalonia on September 27th. 25 observers from all around Europe (Itlay, Greece, Austria, Slovenia, Finland, Iceland…), most of them members of AEGEE, went to Barcelona to follow the electoral process, from the end of the campaign, till the actual day of elections and the next one, with interest. Some of them even knew more about the subject than the locals.
The participants were hosted mostly in a very centric hostel and developped different activities.
Thursday was the arrival day and a lot of them went to enjoy the ending of the Barcelona Festival La Mercè with a show involving fireworks, lights, fountains and music. On the other days, there were formal and informal meetings with local civic entities, the Catalan Government and a visit to the Catalan Parliament. There was also presence in the meetings of ending of electoral campaign and in the social part the city of Barcelona was visited.
In total, there were 104 electoral school observations, all in the city of Barcelona, and the team put on focus on youth participation, from the opening at 9AM and until the closing at 8PM and counting.
All in all, the process was followed with a lot of interest and a general positive evaluation was made. In the social networks, the hashtag was #eomcatalonia.
AEGEE Election Observation started last year and has been present on elections in Ukraine, Moldova, Scotland, UK, Estonia or Finland, for example. Upcoming presence in Spain is being prepared.
Ferran Arruebo, AEGEE-Barcelona