FREE!
north EDITION Hunt for loyal pet
A 16-year-old rescue dog that has been a treasured member of a family for more than 14 years has gone missing. • p3
Your English Newspaper
Issue 586
7 - 13 january 2011
Days left to grab vote
Hotel tourist in custody over fire
by Jack Troughton
A British tourist remains in custody and faces arson charges after it is alleged he started a fire at a hotel in the resort’s Rincon de Loix, Benidorm. • p5
Win a detox retreat with The Kamala Centre and RTN RTN has teamed up with The Kamala Centre to offer one lucky reader and a friend or partner to experience a fantastic FREE 2 day Detox retreat. • p31
A farewell to alms A Careline Theatre pantomime is based on the most exciting of the Arabian Nights adventures where asking for a bit of loose change can have dire consequences. . • p43
The Urn returns
Andy Kay is more than happy to have wrongly predicted a 2 – 1 success for England in the ashes. Read his column to find out why. • p54
Tim Ladd
See page 17
EXPATS HAVE just days to sign on the electoral roll and claim a vote in the May elections before the 15th January deadline. People returning to Spanish homes after the Christmas break were warned the cut off was “an absolute last chance” to register and be allowed to cast a ballot in the local elections on May 22nd. As the successful ‘No Vote, No Voice’ campaign reaches its natural conclusion, all EU citizens - and expats from other countries with reciprocal voting rights - were urged to insure they were on the electoral roll, the Censo Electoral’. To qualify, residents need to be on both their town hall ‘Padron’ – the municipal register – and have declared an intention to vote by asking to join the electoral roll. And as the cut off approaches, people were warned not to be complacent and to check they were on the Censo. Because the Padron lists the population of municipalities and governs central
government grants to town halls, Madrid has encouraged local authorities to “weed out” names of people who have left Spain. Unfortunately, according to campaigners, this means “whether mistakenly, deliberately or not” some names may have been removed from the lists – triggering the need for individuals to check their status on the records. Residents wanting to vote should go to their town hall armed with their Padron, passport, NIE number and residencia certificate. They should ask for a voter registration form and ask for copies of the documents be made and attached. To check they are registered, they can email the Census Office on sede.censoelectoral@ine.es quoting their name, pardon address, passport and NIE number. The inquiry can be made in English but should be unambiguous – for example: ‘I want to confirm I will be able to vote in the municipal elections in May 2011’. continued on page 3