Some 2,708,083 people were registered on the overseas electoral roll, known by its Spanish initials CERA, on May 1, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE). The register has been growing by more than 16,000 names a month.
The roll has risen by about 375,000 since the July 2023 general election, an increase of 16 per cent. It could swell by a further 600,000 before the next national vote, due by 2027, taking it past 2.9 million.
That growth has been attributed largely to the 2022 Democratic Memory Law, which contains the provision widely known as the ley de nietos (grandchildren law). It grants Spanish nationality to the children and grandchildren of Spaniards who lost their citizenship after going into exile for political, ideological, religious or sexual-orientation reasons.
