Who administers direct democracy mechanisms at the national level?

Ana Cristina Lopez

Head of electoral-cooperationunit. Ministry of the Interior. Spain. aclopez@mir.es / pielecciones@mir.es

0034 915371310

According to Organic Law 5/1985 on the General Election Regime (LOREG), and the Ley Orgánica 2/1980, de 18 de enero, reguladora de las distintas modalidades de refer?ndum, in Spain there is not a special electoral body in charge of all electoral duties, but several Public Administration bodies that work in a coordinated way bringing about the different electoral management tasks, always under the supervision of the Electoral Administration that consists of the Electoral Committees (members of the judiciary) and the citizens that, at polling day, have electoral tasks as members of the Polling stations. All elections and referenda in Spain, nationwide ones and also those called at the Autonomous Communities’ level, take place under the supervision of the so called Administraci?n Electoral (Electoral Administration), a five level system, consisting of the Central Election Commission (Junta Electoral Central), Autonomous Communities’ Election Commissions, Provincial Election Commissions (Juntas Electorales Provinciales), District or Zone Election Commissions (Juntas Electorales de Zona) and Polling stations (Mesas electorales).

The Ministry of the Interior plays a key role in electoral management (always under the supervision of the Administraci?n Electoral) together with the Electoral Roll Office (Ministry of Economy), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Out of country voting), the Postal Service and the so called Administraci?n Perif?rica (Delegaciones and Subdelegaciones del Gobierno), in the following electoral processes and referenda: Nationwide Parliamentary Elections (Congress and Senate), Local Elections, European Parliament Elections, and nationwide referenda.