A FRESH election in Spain would cost the taxpayer €177 million, and acting justice minister Rafael Catalá has called for an 'across-the-board agreement' for any pre-polls campaigns, if it comes to this, to be cut short.
Elections have to be held 54 days after they are called, and the campaign runs for 15 days, but changing the electoral law could be very difficult with only an acting government in power.
PSOE leader Pedro Sánchez is not happy about reducing the 15-day campaign, saying it would 'rob citizens of their public debate' giving them time to weigh up the options and make an informed choice.
Otherwise, Catalá proposes cutting subsidies given to parties for their campaigns, which amount to around €47m.
Sánchez, and centre-right Ciudadanos' leader Albert Rivera, say they agree with this, because 'debate is free' but time is more important than money.
Logistics – even down to ballot slips, envelopes, plastic ballot boxes, and instruction manuals for those called up for poll station duty – come to €12.6m, which includes the standard €62.61 in 'expenses' paid to those manning the tables, a job they are conscripted to do and which is not optional.
With Spain on terrorist alert level 4 – one below the maximum of 5 – following the simultaneous attacks in Paris, Somalia and Kuwait in June, more National and Local Police and Guardia Civil officers than usual are required, and this, along with institutional, non-party-specific campaigns reminding everyone to go and vote, cost around €55.1m.
Postal voting, including the post office's own handling of ballots mailed in both directions, costs €48m, and technology and telecommunications to broadcast the vote count at different stages of the day cost around €12.8m.
Once contingencies and miscellaneous costs have been added – another €1.67m – the total, net of party subsidies, comes to €130.24m.
Town and city councils lend venues for political rallies and subsidise parties on a sliding scale according to their size and results, and after the elections, all parties which gain at least one seat in Parliament receive 81 cents a vote, and 32 cents for every vote in the Senate, plus €21,167.64 per seat gained.
This means that after the December 20 elections, the right-wing PP – in power since November 2011 and still the caretaking government – earned €17.4m; the socialists, or PSOE, €12.2m; left-wing independents Podemos, €9.44m, and Ciudadanos, for Parliament only as it did not win any representation in the Senate, €3.7m.
Authorities have calculated what this amount of €177.64m could be spent on if a second election did not have to be held.
Governments could increase spending on care for the elderly and disabled by 14%, as the amount spent on a general election equates to an entire month's budget for social services nationally – children and migrants in vulnerable situations, drug addicts in treatment or rehabilitation, and the elderly would benefit from this.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com