Hi, I am Jim Simpson a 58 year old retired Police Officer living in Almeria, Spain with my wife Sue.
In 2006 as a result of a series of burglaries we established a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme for the Zurgena area. This scheme now has in excess of 200 members. It has been a great success but it would not have been had it not been for the total support of the Town Hall. We almost immediately gained the appointment of a bi lingual full time member of staff at the Town Hall to assist expats and have subsequently gained a 400% increase in the Polizia Local.
As a result of my regular involvment at the Town Hall with the Mayor and others I was able to understand better the workings of Spain's politics, but was nonetheless, surprised when, on Monday 9th April ,the Mayor asked me if I would like to represent the expat community by joining his party to fight the next elections on the 27th May 2007. I asked for time to consider and research what that would entail but I agreed to give them an answer by lunchtime on the next day.
I contacted friends who I know connected to local politics in Spain and after a long discussion with my wife and considering all the options I agreed to join the Partido Andalucista P.A. I also took into account that the current mayor had been so very helpful to our community that I had no qualms about joining them.
The current council for Zurgena comprises 11 councillors 5 of whom are P.A.
Each political party that wishes to contest the elections has to submit a numbered list of 14 names, where 1 is the person the party hopes will be Mayor down to no 14 who is in effect 3rd travelling reserve. The elections are a form of proportional representation. If one party gains 50% of the vote then their first 7 names would become councillors. I attended a party meeting on Wednesday 18th April which was to decide the numbering of candidates and I was of course nervous and excited to discover where I would be in the list as it would determine whether I could possible have a voice on the council or not. It was avery democratic meeting where each party member could give his views and a concensus was agreed. I was delighted to discover that I was to be No 6 on the list thereby giving me a great opportunity to obtain a seat on the council.
I intend through this blog to detail the run up to and any details of the election for the Council in Zurgena.
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