EXPATS in the Spanish town of Rojales have told reporters that they will not vote in the upcoming UK elections, despite the recent law change that no longer excludes voters who have lived abroad for more than 16 years from casting their ballots.
“I don’t do politics,” one British resident of Rojales, which is located in Alicante, told Euronews.
“It’s not worth the hassle,” said another.
Some of the Brits in the town also told Euronews that they would like to participate in the elections, but that the short-notice nature of the polls has made it more complicated.
“I have tried to vote,” one British woman told the news site. “And yet again, because I’m in Spain, it has been very, very complicated, and I have to have a proxy vote. So I have to get someone in the UK to vote for me. But the time has now passed in order for me to get that in place.”
Analysts in Spain, meanwhile, have been surprised that the issue of Brexit is not being discussed ahead of the vote, which will take place this Thursday, July 4.
“It’s curious that Brexit is not being discussed in the electoral campaign,” Millan Requena, a professor of International Law at Alicante University, told Euronews.
“It’s like an elephant in the room,” he said. “If there is a win for the Labour Party, which is also being very cautious on this issue, there will likely be a closer approach to Brussels and the European community.”
Brits in Rojales also said they didn’t think that the result of the election would have an effect on their lives.
“I would particularly want the government to look at freedom of movement, but that’s tied up with immigration,” the same British woman told the news channel. “And I think people are getting the wrong end of the stick, and they’re so set up with immigration that they can’t see, which is why we had Brexit in the first place.”
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