✶ Calendar · General election, 29 November 2026
Spain has no fixed election date. A general election comes when the four-year term ends or when the President of the Government dissolves the Cortes early, as Pedro Sánchez did on 5 October 2026. From then the law runs a fixed clock: polling day falls 54 days after the decree is published.
Real Decreto 806/2026
The statutory timetable
Each date below is counted from polling day under the electoral law (LOREG). We check the offsets against the Junta Electoral Central's own calendar for the July 2023 election.
Step by step
From dissolution to a new President of the Government.
Step 1 of 8 · President of the Government · the King
After deliberation in the Council of Ministers, the President proposes dissolution and the King decrees it; the decree fixes polling day (Constitution art. 115). It cannot happen while a motion of censure is pending, or within a year of the last dissolution.
Step 2 of 8 · Parties, coalitions, groups of electors
Lists are presented to the provincial electoral boards between the 15th and 20th day after the call (LOREG art. 45), published on the 22nd, corrected within 48 hours, and proclaimed on the 27th (art. 47). In 2026 the boards proclaimed them on 2 November; the BOE printed every list the next day.
Step 3 of 8 · Candidacies
Starts on the 38th day after the call, lasts 15 days and ends at midnight before polling day (art. 51). Public broadcasters give free slots by the previous result; paid ads are banned on public media and private TV (art. 60–64).
Step 4 of 8 · Every media outlet
No poll may be published, broadcast or reproduced during the five days before polling day (art. 69.7).
Step 5 of 8 · Everyone
No propaganda and no campaign acts once the campaign has legally ended (art. 53).
Step 6 of 8 · Voters · polling-station members drawn by lot
Voting runs without interruption from 9:00 to 20:00 (art. 84). Each polling station counts its ballots as soon as voting ends (art. 95) and posts the result; a copy of its record goes to the Government, which publishes provisional results through the night (art. 98).
Step 7 of 8 · Provincial electoral boards
On the fifth day after the vote each board makes the official count, including votes from abroad (art. 103), proclaims the winners, and the Junta Electoral Central publishes the results in the BOE.
Step 8 of 8 · The King · the Congress
The King consults the parties and proposes a candidate. A first vote needs an absolute majority (176 of 350); 48 hours later a simple majority, more yes than no, is enough (Constitution art. 99).
The rules of the campaign
From the call to polling day, public authorities may not hold events that tout their achievements.
No inaugurations of public works or services in the same period, though they may open.
Serving soldiers, police, judges, prosecutors and members of the electoral boards may not campaign.
Paid advertising in newspapers and private radio is capped at 20% of the party's spending limit.
Parties get special postal rates for one mailing per elector.
No paid electoral advertising on public media or private television; free slots on public radio and TV instead.
Free slots on public broadcasters: 10 minutes for new or unrepresented parties, 15 under 5% of the vote last time, 30 between 5 and 20%, 45 above 20%.
Every published poll must state who made it and who paid, the sampling method, sample size, margin of error, and fieldwork dates.
The poll ban
"Durante los cinco días anteriores al de la votación queda prohibida la publicación y difusión o reproducción de sondeos electorales por cualquier medio de comunicación" (LOREG art. 69.7). For 29 November the ban runs from 24 November to 28 November.
Our poll page goes blank during the ban and stays blank on polling day until the last stations close in the Canary Islands. We show no prediction-market odds: Spain's gambling regulator treats them as unlicensed gambling.
Try it · LOREG art. 69.7
Pick a moment, in Madrid time.
If no one is invested · Constitution art. 99.5
"Si transcurrido el plazo de dos meses, a partir de la primera votación de investidura, ningún candidato hubiere obtenido la confianza del Congreso, el Rey disolverá ambas Cámaras y convocará nuevas elecciones." It has happened twice:
The clock starts at the first vote, not on election day, so a deadlock can last far longer than two months. Try building a majority →
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