Who checks the signatures?

The Central Electoral Commission (Junta Electoral Central), which is in charge of guaranteeing the transparency, objectivity and equality of the electoral processes, amongst other tasks, being some of them related with the Citizens' legislative initiative, is composed of eleven members (some of the Judiciary and some from the Academy) who are in office for a period of 4 years. The electoral Law considers the Junta Electoral Central-Central Electoral Commission as the only permanent body of those that form part of the so called ?Administraci?n Electoral? (article 8 Organic Electoral Act 5/1985) The procedure of collecting the signatures must end when the signatures are handed to the Provincial Electoral Commissions (Juntas Electorales Provinciales) in a nine months? time, to be counted from the moment the Central Electoral Commission issues its notification about the number of signatures collected. This period of time can be increased up to three more months when some important event can justify it, according to the Congress?s Bureau decision. When the deadline is over and the required signatures have not been presented, the citizens? initiative expires. Besides the elector?s signature there should be written down his/her name, the National Identity Card number, and the municipality in which electoral lists is registered. The signatures may be collected using Electronic-signatures. The signatures must be authenticated by a Notary public, by a Judiciary Secretary or by the municipal Secretary that works at the municipality where the elector that has signed is registered. This authentication must record the date when it has been done and it could be a collective authentication, page by page. In this case, the number of signatures contained in each page must be written down besides the date of the authentication. The pages that contain the signatures collected will be sent to the Central Electoral Commission that will send them to the Electoral Census Office in order to certify that the electors who have signed are registered in the electoral census as having 18 years old, and in order to verify and count the signatures. The Electoral Census Office, in a 15 days? time, will send to the Central Electoral Commission a certification on all these issues. The Commission that had presented the Citizens? legislative initiative can require, at any moment, from the Central Electoral Commission all the information needed as regards the number of signatures collected. Once the notification which certifies that the number of signatures, required by the legislation, had been collected, the Bureau of Congress will publish the text of the Citizens? legislative initiative in a 6 months time in order to take it into consideration. The Parliamentary proceedings will follow the Standing Orders of Parliament regulations. A representative of the Commission that had presented the Citizens? legislative initiative may participate, if the Standing Orders establish so.