The Central Electoral Board sets the distribution of free electoral campaign spaces

The Central Electoral Board has established the rules for the allocation of free electoral campaign spaces in public media outlets for the general elections on November 29, 2026. This is done through Instruction 2/2026, dated October 26, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) no. 269, dated October 29, 2026 (reference BOE-A-2026-22695). The text combines the state-level distribution of these spaces with the delegation of powers to provincial boards for regional and local programming.

The framework: the LOREG and the call decree

The instruction is based on Royal Decree 806/2026, dated October 5, which calls for elections to the Congress of Deputies and the Senate for November 29, 2026. Article 65.2 of Organic Law 5/1985, dated June 19, on the General Electoral Regime (LOREG), establishes that the distribution of free campaign spaces is carried out upon the proposal of a Radio and Television Commission composed of representatives from the political formations with representation in the Congress of Deputies.

Paragraph 5 of the same Article 65 empowers the Central Electoral Board to delegate to the provincial boards the distribution corresponding to regional and local programming of public media outlets. The instruction is published, in accordance with Article 18.6 of the LOREG, due to its general nature, and bears the signature of the president of the Central Electoral Board, Eduardo Calvo Rojas, at the Palace of the Congress of Deputies on October 26, 2026.

What is distributed and who decides

The first section of the agreement reserves for the Central Electoral Board the distribution of free spaces in the national programming of state-owned public media outlets. For this purpose, the results of the previous elections to the Congress of Deputies will be taken into account.

The Radio and Television Commission tasked with proposing the distribution is configured as follows:

• One representative for each party, federation, or coalition contesting the elections that has representation in the Congress of Deputies.
• A single representative for formations that run independently in certain constituencies and in coalition in others.
• Meeting at the premises of the Congress of Deputies on Wednesday, November 4, at 12:00 p.m.

Delegation to provincial boards

The second section delegates to the Provincial Electoral Boards and the Electoral Boards of Ceuta and Melilla the competencies of the Central Electoral Board to allocate spaces in the regional programming of state-owned media and other public media of a similar scope. When the programming exceeds the provincial scope, the delegation corresponds to the provincial board in whose territory the medium or the broadcasting center is located.

In each of these scopes, a commission must be established under the direction of the corresponding provincial board, with a composition that reflects the parliamentary representation in the Congress of Deputies of the territory, in accordance with article 65.5 of the LOREG. The allocation will take into account, according to article 63.1, the results of the previous elections to the Congress in the medium’s broadcast area.

Impact for readers

The regulation orders the start of the electoral race in public radio and television: it establishes who decides how much propaganda time corresponds to each party and by what criteria it is measured, from the results of previous elections to territorial representation. The calendar is marked by the meeting on November 4, which must produce the allocation proposal for state media, while the provincial boards assume the same role in regional and local programming.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 269, of October 29, 2026, Sec. III. Other provisions, page 145151 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-22695).