Be Heard
Today there are general elections here in Spain. People will vote for who will represent them in the Congress and the Senate by political party. Once pacts are made, a leader of one of the winning parties is proposed for Prime Minister. The choice has to be ratified by the majority vote and confirmed by the King, who then entrusts the mission of overseeing the government to the elected candidate. That is how it's been since the first election after the Constitution of 1978. Suffrage is universal, and any Spanish citizen over 18 can vote as long as they show their national ID card or a driver's license. But it hasn't always been so simple. The first general elections came in 1810, during the War of Independence against Napoleon. A law was set up to give universal suffrage to elect a Congress. Though one must understand that universal suffrage in those days excluded women and the poor. Those eligible to vote were men older than 25 years of age, and with an established means...