On 10 September, the Tribunal Supremo suspended part of the overseas voter census registration for 163.020 people while it checks whether certain files met legal requirements. Those affected still appear in the census closed on 1 August, which is the register in force for the 29 November elections.
Spain's State Legal Service says the CERA register for Spaniards permanently living abroad contained 2,736,522 people on 1 July 2026. That was 408,262 more than at the 2023 elections.
The uncertainty has reached people such as Griselda Díaz.
Díaz obtained Spanish nationality in 2024 after applying through the so-called 'ley de nietos'. She waited more than a year and a half after submitting her documents. Now she does not know whether the status linking her legal identity to her Spanish roots will also let her vote.
The court is reviewing submissions from the Fiscalía and the Abogacía del Estado opposing the precautionary measure. Vox and Iustitia Europa have filed arguments to keep it in place.
The Abogacía del Estado estimates that the suspension affects 163.020 people. The measure does not suspend Ley de Memoria Democrática itself. It concerns electoral registration for people naturalised under a disputed Ministry of Justice instruction who have not provided evidence that their ancestor was forced into exile.
Applicants who can document political or ideological persecution, as well as other forms of persecution, are covered by an exception.
The timetable is tight. The Supreme Court must resolve the measure quickly once elections have been called. A previous court update set out the deadline for the parties: they received a non-extendable two-day period to submit arguments. The 1 August census is already being used for voting on 29 November.
For Díaz, the issue goes beyond administration. When she learned about the precautionary suspension, she felt some citizens were being treated as first-class and others as second-class. Her connection to Spain predated the certificate, but the law gave it formal legal recognition.
Figures attributed to the Ministry of Justice and Spain's State Legal Service show that 163,020 of the 369,017 people who obtained Spanish nationality under Ley de Memoria Democrática did so through the Ministry of Justice instruction now under Supreme Court review. The dispute concerns the legality of the administrative registration procedure, not the general existence of the nationality route created by the law.
The route is based on additional provision eight of Ley de Memoria Democrática 20/2022. It covers several groups of descendants of Spaniards, including people descended from those who went into exile for political or ideological reasons, or because of religious persecution, during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.
Applying requires extensive documentation. Díaz had to obtain papers including her grandfather's original birth certificate from Asturias. She says finding and securing such records takes time and money.
She also points to people who may want Spanish nationality but do not know how to trace an ancestor or obtain every required certificate.
That practical barrier lies basic to the dispute. The law opened a route for descendants who had long felt connected to Spain, yet the process depends on archives and certificates, as well as an applicant's ability to handle them.
The court's review adds another uncertainty for some successful applicants: whether nationality obtained through this route brings an immediate electoral right. The Supreme Court says the precautionary measure is intended to determine whether automatic registration without proof of the relevant ancestry creates a risk to election objectivity and transparency that is both real and serious, and justified.
The Abogacía del Estado has asked the court to lift the suspension. It argues that the measure restricts the fundamental voting rights of 163.020 Spanish citizens without an individual assessment. It also warns that, with the elections approaching, applying the measure could become practically irreversible.
Fiscalía supports lifting the suspension, while Vox and Iustitia Europa want it to remain in place. Iustitia Europa has also argued that the decision may be technically impossible to implement within electoral law's deadlines.
If the measure remains, a large group of new citizens could stay formally on the closed CERA register but be unable to vote on 29 November. If it is lifted, they could vote without waiting for a final ruling on the substance of the dispute.
Díaz's case shows the gap between recognition on paper and the full exercise of citizenship. The 29 November vote sets a firm deadline for the dispute.
Until the Tribunal Supremo rules, 163.020 people remain caught between a completed nationality process and an unresolved question about their place on the electoral register.
