Podemos has launched its open primaries for the general elections on November 29. The party launched a website this Thursday where those who want to vote and those who aspire to be part of the candidacy can register. It is the first practical step of the proposal that Irene Montero has made to the rest of the left-wing parties to run together.
The party maintains its invitation to the Frente Amplio promoted by Movimiento Sumar, Izquierda Unida, Más Madrid and the Comuns. Montero insisted today that primaries are the condition to reach an agreement and defended that letting people vote would help the left to get out of the "loop" of negotiations between organizations. The MEP announced that she herself will run.
The opening of the website, advanced by 'Europa Press', comes while conversations for a common candidacy continue. As we have reported in 'ElConstitucional.es', Ada Colau and Irene Montero maintain contact and the former mayor of Barcelona is trying to bring positions closer. Colau has asked for a single ballot to the left of the PSOE and has shown herself willing to participate in the project if Podemos also joins.
Registrations, endorsements and voting on October 14 and 15
The calendar leaves little room. Pre-candidacies can register from October 9 to 11 and the census of those who want to vote will close at midnight on the 11th. Aspirants must gather 300 endorsements from registered people or members of the parties that decide to participate. Voting will be held on the 14th and 15th and results are expected for October 16.
The primaries will allow the election of a candidacy for the Presidency of the Government and the lists for Congress and the Senate in each constituency. According to the published regulations, whoever obtains the most votes to head the project will occupy the first position on the ballot for Madrid. To order the rest of the candidacies, a point system will be used that gives more weight to the names placed first by each voter, with the necessary adjustments to comply with legal parity.
Adults with the right to vote in general elections will be able to register. The website also allows participating parties to incorporate their censuses, with the data protection guarantees required by regulations. This detail responds to one of the issues raised during conversations between organizations, which must agree on how their members will participate if they join the process.
Unity is still being negotiated
The launch of the primaries coincides with the progress of conversations about Ada Colau as a possible leader of the Broad Front. Más Madrid has proposed that she head the list for Barcelona and demands the main positions on the Madrid candidacy. Izquierda Unida asks that the distribution be agreed upon by all partners. Podemos, for its part, had already opened the possibility of negotiating a joint list and then submitting the agreement to the vote of registered members.
Also pending is the future of Gabriel Rufián, who is still negotiating with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) whether he will repeat as a candidate. Sources consulted by ‘ElConstitucional.es’ have confirmed that in recent days his contacts with the Broad Front have intensified and that he is holding conversations with Colau and Montero. None of these conversations implies, for now, that he has decided to leave ERC or join another list.
Podemos places housing and the reduction of the cost of living among the priorities of the candidacy that emerges from the primaries. In the presentation of the process, it also proposes better wages, reducing the working day, and defending social rights. Parties have until October 16 to communicate their electoral coalitions, the same day that the publication of the voting results is scheduled.
