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NORTH EDITION
Your English Newspaper
Issue 577
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5 - 11 NOVEMBER 2010
Conference focuses on Right to Vote Maria Asuncion Prieto and Diego Carcedo
by Louise Clarke NEARLY 150 people attended last week’s European Dialogue Conference which took place in the magnificent MARQ Museum in Alicante last week. This recent gathering was the third annual event in which the Diputacion of Alicante invites European residents to discuss any relevant issues relating to their lives here in Spain, the role that the Diputaction plays and how integration between the various societies can be further improved. This year’s conference concentrated primarily on the forthcoming municipal elections, the rights of European residents to vote at those
elections and, of course, the importance of registering on the ‘padron’. FRUSTRATION RTN was very proud to have its reporter Louise Clarke invited to speak about its No Vote, No Voice Campaign. She explained to the gathered Mayors, Councillors and other dignitaries the reasons behind RTN’s campaign and what the newspaper hopes to achieve by the campaign. She said: “It is important for a newspaper like RTN to be involved in a conference like this as invariably it is newspapers like RTN that people come to when they have problems they cannot
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solve directly with their Town Hall.” She added: “RTN is the voice of those British residents who cannot speak the language and who are frustrated and feel that they are not respected or listened to by the various authorities.” “This is all well and good,” continued Louise, “but the paper shouldn’t be used as a tool like that unless those people are prepared to integrate properly, get on the ‘padron’ and exercise their right to vote. Why should the RTN get involved in Town Hall disputes on behalf of British residents, if those residents cannot be bothered electing those representatives with which they are having the dispute with?”