Let’s talk elections in Spanish!

Image drawn from Pixabay.com

Proceed and use these words when explaining to your Spanish-speaking buddies how elections are kept in your country.

Regarding the leader of a countrys executive branch, he or she might be understood as presidente “President”, jefe de Estado “Head of State”, jefe de Gobierno “Head of Government”, mandatario or gobernante.

When it comes to the election itself, it might be referred to as la elección o las elecciones, either in singular or plural. There is another popular term for it: los comicios, from Latin comitium, implying “election to distribute public offices amongst prospects”. Know that comicios is always used in the plural form.

As the 2020 United States elections draw near, this is the perfect event to discover how Spanish speakers discuss elections and democracy in la lengua de Cervantes.

Another Spanish noun bearing an obvious resemblance to its English equivalent is colegio electoral “electoral college”.

There are some words belonging to the elections glossary that share similarities in Spanish and English. The electoral system itself and the right to vote is called el sufragio “suffrage”; the name for the group of individuals entitled to vote in a specific geographical area is similar in both languages: el electorado “electorate”; and the period in which a winning prospect holds public office is understood as el mandato, practically the exact same as “required”.

When it comes to la Cámara de Representantes (House of Representatives), every constituency is represented by one seat, which may be equated as el escaño o la curul (pl. curules) in Spanish, each one to be held by diputados and diputadas (male and female representatives). Escaño or curul are the names for each seat in any given legislature or parliament, even for el Senado (Senate) and each one of los senadores and las senadoras (male and female senators).

In the case of the election itself, it may be referred to as la elección o las elecciones, either in singular or plural. There is another popular term for it: los comicios, from Latin comitium, indicating “election to distribute public workplaces amongst candidates”. In the case of la Cámara de Representantes (House of Representatives), every constituency is represented by one seat, which might be translated as el escaño o la curul (pl.

Typically, a geographical location being represented by one or more chosen officials might get one of 2 names in Spanish: la circunscripción and el distrito electoral, which are equivalent to “constituency”, “electoral district” or “riding”.

Based on the concepts of la democracia “democracy”, the electoral process is a vital component of any modern nations political system.

Among the many aspects that prevail for bring out an election, we have nouns like el voto “vote”, la papeleta or la boleta “ballot”, and la urna “ballot box”. (Yes, in some Spanish-speaking countries, urna is also a synonym of ataúd “coffin”.).