23J: last minute of the general elections, live

Villarroya, the first municipality to close the polls, breaks a record again: its seven voters vote in 26 seconds

Villarroya has done it again and has once again been the first Spanish municipality to close its polls. On this occasion, he has also broken his own record, since his seven registered voters have voted in 26 seconds.

A record that they had already managed to break just two months ago, voting in just over 29 seconds in the municipal and regional elections on May 28.

Practice gives experience and the inhabitants of Villarroya already know exactly what they have to do. And so it has been. Seven people in total, three are at the table; another three, substitutes; and another person.

So, by 8 in the morning, the table was perfectly formed, and some were even already waiting, under the watchful eye of the media and many onlookers, who are already approaching the place to see if each time it is possible to vote in less time.

The forecast has come true: three seconds less than in the May election, amid the joy and applause of all those present who, to finish off the celebration, have planned a meal this midday, in which more than thirty people will gather.

Villarroya, a town located in the Cervera del Río Alhama region, has spent years holding the recognition of being the first Spanish town to close its polls.

A circumstance that, as its mayor, Salvador Pérez, likes to remember, “happened by chance” and that is already a tradition, sealed even by the massive presence of the media in the town, to echo the record.

A first mayor, by the way, who, after revalidating the position on May 28, is the longest serving in office in the entire country, since he took office for the first time in 1973, and has been chaining mandates since then. In this way, next September he will celebrate 50 years as the first mayor of the municipality.

Before today’s record and that of last May, the people had already been the fastest voting in 2015 by closing their polls in the December elections at 09:01 a.m.; in 2011 it closed its only polling station at 09:07.

In May 2016, the voting time was 9.02 minutes. In the April 2019 general elections, it took them just 40 seconds to vote and, a month later, on June 26, they did so in 9 minutes and one second. On May 28, the time was reduced to less than half a minute, and today, it has already dropped to 26 seconds.

inform Europe Press.