Voting rights

[Tessa K]

How come EU citizens still have the right to vote in local elections post Brexit?

[bob sterman]

Commonwealth citizens who are living here (e.g. with a work permit or spousal visa) can also vote in local government elections. It's not so unusual.

[Tessa K]

Commonwealth citizens who are living here (e.g. with a work permit or spousal visa) can also vote in local government elections. It's not so unusual.

I know they can but it surprised me that Euro people can too still

[Opti]

Yup, I can vote in local elections here in Spain.

[Woodchopper]

Yup, I can vote in local elections here in Spain.

That’s partly because the UK and Spain have a reciprocal arrangement which gives citizens of each state the right to vote in local elections.

[Woodchopper]

How come EU citizens still have the right to vote in local elections post Brexit?

Only those resident before 1 January 2021 and not covered by a bilateral agreement can vote.

I’m not sure about the rationale for the cutoff prior to Brexit. I assume it’s due to a combination of not want to remove certain rights from people (yes, I know they did that in other ways) and the difficulty in revising the electoral rolls (for example it’s complicated because a lot of people who joined as an EU citizen will be entitled to get UK citizenship by naturalisation).

[IvanV]

Commonwealth citizens who are living here (e.g. with a work permit or spousal visa) can also vote in local government elections. It's not so unusual.

Commonwealth citizens with residence can vote in general elections. Pre-Brexit, a Belgian friend of mine used to complain it seemed odd his Singaporean wife could vote in general elections when he couldn't.